DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF HYDRAULIC AND OTHER MACHINES FOR RAISING WATER, Slncimt nnfc es to obtain a continuous blast — Double bellows of the Foulah blacksmiths without valves — Simpi. 4siatic bellows — Domestic bellows of modern Egypt — Double bellows of the an- cient Egyptians bellows blowers in the middle ages — Lantern bellows common over all the east — Specimens from A^'cola — Used by negroes in the interior of Africa — Modern Egyptian black- smiths' bellows — Vale*!, ''s bellows — Various kinds of Roman bellows — Bellows of Grecian black- smiths referred to in a pi eviction of the Delphic oracle — Application of lantern bellows as forcing pumps — Sticking and forcing bellows pumps — Modern domestic bellows of ancient origin — Used to raise water — Common blacksmiths' bellows employed as forcing pumps — Ventilation of mines 231 CHAPTER II. Piston bellows: used in water organs — Engraved on a medal of Valentinian — Used in Asia and Af- rica. Bellows of Madagascar. Chinese bellows: account of two in the Philadelphia museum — Remarks on a knowledge of the pump among the ancient Chinese — Chinese bellows similar in their construction to the water forcer of Ctesibius, the double acting pump of La Hire, the cylin- drical steam engine, and condensing and exhausting air pumps. Double acting bellows of Mada- gascar— Alledged ignorance of the old Peruvian and Mexican smiths of bellows: their constant use of blowing tubes no proof of this — Examples from Asiatic gold and silver smiths — Balsas — Sarbacans — Mexican Vttlcan. Natural bellows pumos: blowing apparatus of the whale — Elephant— CONTENTS. Xlll Rise and descent of marine animals — Jaculator fish — Llama — Spurting snake — Lamprey — Bees— The heart of man and animals — Every human being a living pump : wonders of its mechanism, and of the duration of its motions and materials — Advantages of studying the mechanism of ani- mals 244 CHAPTER III. Forcing pumps with solid pistons : the syringe : its uses, materials and antiquity — Employed by the Hindoos in religious festivals — Figured on an old coat of arms — Simple garden pump — Single valve forcing pump — Common forcing pump — Stomach pump — Forcing pump with air vessel — Machine of Ctesibius: its description by Vitruvius — Remarks on its origin — Errors of the ancients respect- ing the authors of several inventions — Claims of Ctesibius to the pump limited — Air vessel probably invented by him — Compressed air a prominent feature in all his inventions — Air vessels — In He- ron's fountain— Apparently referred to by Pliny— Air gun of Ctesibius— The hookah - - 259 CHAPTER IV. Forcing pumps continued : La Hire's double acting pump — Plunger pump: invented byMoreland; the most valuable of modern improvements on the pump — Application of it to other purposes than raising water — Frictionless plunger pump— Quicksilver pumps — Application of the principle of Bramah's press by bees in forcing honey into their cells. Forcing pumps with hollow pistons: employed in French water works — Specimen from the works at Notre Dame — Lifting pump from Agricola — Modern lifting pumps — Extract from an old pump-maker's circular — Lifting pumps with two pistons — Combination of hollow and solid pistons — Trevethick's pump — Perkins's pump - 271 CHAPTER V. Rotary or rotatory pumps : uniformity in efforts made to improve machines — Prevailing custom to convert rectilinear and reciprocating movements into circular ones — Epigram of Antipater — An- cient opinion respecting circular motions — Advantages of rotary motions exemplified in various machines — Operations of spinning and weaving ; historical anecdotes respecting them — Rotary pump from Serviere — Interesting inventions of his — Classification of rotary pumps — Eve's steam engine and pump — Another class of rotary pumps — Rotary pump of the 16th century — Pump with sliding butment — Trotter's engine and pump — French rotary pump — Bramah and Dickeuson's pump — Rotary pumps with pistons in the form"of vanes — Centrifugal pump — Defects of rotary pumps — Reciprocating rotary pumps: a French one — An English one — Defects of these pumps - 281 CHAPTER VI. Application of pumps in modern water works : first used by the Germans — Water works at Augs- burgh and Bremen — Singular android in the latter city — Old water works at Toledo— At London Bridge — Other London works moved by horses, water, wind and steam — Water engine at Exeter — Water works erected on Pont Neuf and Pont Notre Dame at Paris — Celebrated works at Marli — Error of Rannequiu in making them unnecessarily complex. American water works : a history of them desirable — Introduction of pumps into wells in New-York city — Extracts from the minutes of the Common Council previous to the war of independence — Public water works proposed and commenced in 1774 — Treasury notes issued to meet the expense — Copy of one — Manhattan Com- pany— Water works at Fairmount, Philadelphia - - - - - -993 CHAPTER VII. Fire engines : probably used in Babylon and Tyre — Employed by ancient warriors — Other devices of theirs — Fire engines referred to by Apollodorus — These probably equal in effect to ours : Spiri- talia of Heron: fire engine described in it — Pumps used to promote conflagrations — Greek fire a liquid projected by pumps — Fires and wars commonly united — Generals the greatest incendiaries —Saying of Crates respecting them — Fire pumps the forerunners of guns — Use of engines in Rome — Mentioned in a letter of Pliny to Trajan, and by Seneca, Hesychius, and Isidore. Roman fire- men— Frequency of fires noticed by Juvenal — Detestable practice of Crassus— Portable engines in Roman houses — Modern engines derived from the Spiritalia — Forgotten in the middle ages — Su- perstitions with regard to fires — Fires attributed to demons — Consecrated bells employed as sub- stitutes for water and fire engines — Extracts from the Paris ritual, Wynken de Worde, Barnaby Googe ;ind Peter Martyr respecting them — Emblematic device of an old duke of Milan — Firemen's apparatus from Agricola — Syringes used in London to quench fires in the 17th century — Still em- ployed in Constantinople — Anecdote of the Capudan Pacha — Syringe engine from Besson — Ger- man engines of the 16th century — Pump engine from Decaus — Pump engines in London — Extracts from the minutes of the London Common Council respecting engines and squirts in 1667 — Experi- ment of Maurice mentioned by Stow the historian — Extract from ' a history of the first inventors' 302 CHAPTER VIII. Fin: engines continued: engines by Hautsch — Nuremberg — Fire engines at Strasbourg and Ypres — Coupling screws — Old engine with air chamber — Canvas and leather hose and Dutch engines — Engines of Perier and Leopold — Old English engines — Newsham's engines — Modern French engine — Air chambers — Table of the height of jets — Modes of working fire engines — Engines worked by steam. Fire engines in America: regulations respecting fires in New Amsterdam — Proclamations of Governor Stuyvesant — Extracts from old minutes of the Common Council — First fire engines — Philadelphia and New-York engines — Riveted hose — Steam fire engines now being constructed. Devices to extinguish fire without engines— Water bombs— Protecting buildings from fire— Fire escapes — Couvre feu — Curfew bells — Measuring time with candles — Ancient laws respecting fires and incendiaries— The dress in which Roman incendiaries were burnt retained in the auto da fs - 323 CHAPTER IX. Pressure engines : of limited application — Are modifications of gaining and losing buckets and pumps— Two kinds of pressure engines— Piston pressure engine described by Fludd— Pressure engine from Belidor— Another by Westgarth— Motive pressure engines— These exhibit a novel mode of employing water as a motive agent — Variety of applications of a piston and cylinder — Causes of the ancients being ignorant of the steam engine— Secret of making improvements in the HIV CONTENTS. arts— Fulton, Eli Whitney, and Arkwright— Pressure engines might have been anticipated, and valuable lessons in science may be derived from a disordered pump — Archimedes — Heron's foun- tain— Portable ones recommended in flower gardens and drawing rooms in hot weather — Their invention gave rise to a new class of hydraulic engines — Pressure engine at Chemnitz — Another modification of Heron's fountain — Spiral pump of Wirtz ..... -352 BOOK IV. MACHINES FOR RAISING WATER (CHIEFLY OF MODERN ORIGIN) INCLUDING EARLY APPLICATIONS OF STEAM FOR THAT PURPOSE. CHAPTER 1. ' Devices of the lower animals— Some animals aware that force is increased by the space through which a body moves— Birds drop shell fish from great elevations to break the shells— Death of jEschyl us— Combats between the males of sheep and goats— Military ram of the ancients— Water rams — Waves — Momentum acquired by running water — Examples — Whitehurst's machine — Hy- draulic ram of Montgolfier — ' Canne hydraulique' and its modifications ... ,365 CHAPTER II. Machines for raising water by fire: air machines — Ancient weather glasses — Dilatation of air by heat and condensation by cold — Ancient Egyptian air machines — Statue of Memnon — Statues of Serapis and the Bird of Memnon — Decaus's and Kircher's machinery to account for the sounds of the Theban idol — Remarks on the statue of Memnon — Machine for raising water by the sun's heat, from Heron — Similar machines in the 16th century — Air machines by Portaand Decaus — Distilling by the sun's heat — Musical air machines by Drebble and Decaus — Air machines acted on by ordi- nary fire — Modifications of them employed in ancient altars — Bronze altars — Tricks performed by the heathen priests with fire — Others by heated air and vapor — Bellows employed in ancient altars — Tricks performed at altars mentioned by Heron — Altar that feeds itself with flame from Heron — Ingenuity displayed by ancient priests — Secrets of the temples — The Spiritalia — Sketch of its contents— Curious lustral vase .--.....__ 374 CHAPTER III. On steam : miserable condition of the great portion of the human race in past times — Brighter pros- pects for posterity — Inorganic motive forces — Wonders of steam — Its beneficial influence on man's future destiny— Will supersede nearly all human drudgery— Progress of the arts— Cause why steam was not formerly employed — Pots boiling over and primitive experiments by females — Steam an agent in working prodigies — Priests familiar with steam — Sacrifices boiled — Seething bones Earthquakes — Anthemius and Zeno — Hot baths at Rome — Ball supported on a jet of steam, from the Spiritalia — Heron's whirling eolipile — Steam engines on the same principle — Eolipiles de- scribed by Vitruvius — Their various uses — Heraldic device — Eolipiles from Rivius — Cupelo fur- nace and eolipile from Erckers — Similar applications of steam revived and patented — Eolipiles of the human form — Ancient tenures — Jack of Hilton — Puster a steam deity of the ancient Germans Ingenui(y of the priests in constructing and working it — Supposed allusions to eolipilic idols in the Bible — Employed in ancient wars to project streams of liquid fire — Draft of chimneys improved, perfumes dispersed, and music produced by eolipiles — Eolipiles the germ of modern steam engines 388 CHAPTER IV. Employment of steam in former times — Claims of various people to the steam engine — Application of steam as a motive agent perceived by Roger Bacon — Other modern inventions and discoveries known to him — Spanish steam ship in 1543 — Official documents relating to it — Remarks on these — Antiquity of paddle wheels as propellers — Project of the author for propelling vessels — Experi- ments on steam in the 16th century — Jerome Cardan — Vacuum formed by the condensation of steam known to the alchymists — Experiments from Fludd — Others from Porta — Expansive force of steam illustrated by old authors — Interesting example of raising water by steam from Porta — Mathesius, Canini and Besson — Device for raising hot water from Decaus — Invention of the steam engine claimed by Arago for France — Nothing new in the apparatus of Decaus nor in the principle of its operation — Hot springs — Geysers — Boilers with tubular spouts — Eolipiles — Observations on Decaus — Writings of Porta — Claims of Arago in behalf of Decaus untenable — Instances of hot wa- ter raised by steam in the arts — Manufacture of soap — Discovery of iodine — Ancient soap makers — Soap vats in Pompeii — Manipulations of ancient mechanics — Loss of ancient writings — Large sums anciently expended on soap — Logic of Omar ..... -402 CHAPTER V. Few inventions formerly recorded— Lord Bacon— His project ibr draining mines— Thomas Bushell— Ice produced by hydraulic machines — Eolipiles — Branca's application of the blast of one to pro- duce motion— Its inutility— Curious extract from Wilkins— Ramseye's patent for raising water by fire — Manufacture of nitre — Figure illustrating the application of steam, from an old English work —Kircher's device for raising water by steam— John Bate— Antiquity of boys' kites in England- Discovery of atmospheric pressure — Engine of motion — Anecdotes of Oliver Evans and John Fitch —Elasticity and condensation of steam—Steam engines modifications of guns— A moving piston the essential feature in both — Classification of modern steam engines — Guerricke's apparatus — The same adopted in steam engines— Guerricke one of the authors^ of the steam engine - - 416 CHAPTER VI. Reasons of old inventors for concealing their discoveries — Century of Inventions — Marquis of Wor- cester— His Inventions matured before the civil wars — Several revived since his death — Problems in the ' Century' in older authors — Bird roasting itself— Imprisoning chair — Portable fortifications — Flying — Diving — Drebble's sub-marine ship — The 68th problem — This remarkably explicit — The device consisted of one boiler and two receivers — The receivers charged by atmospheric pressure — Three and four-way cocks — An hydraulic machine of Worcester mentioned by Cosmo CONTENTS. XV de Medicis— Worcester's machine superior to preceding ones, and similar to Savery's— Piston steam engine also made by him — Copy of the last jhree problems in the Century — Ingenious mode of stating them — Forcing pumps worked by steam engines intended — Ancient riddle — Steam boat invented by Worcester — Projectors despised in his time — Patentees caricatured in a public pro- cession— Neglect of Worcester — His death — Persecution of his widow — Worcester one of the greatest mechanicians of any age or nation — Glauber ....... 437 CHAPTER VII. Hautefeuille, Huyghens and Hooke — Moreland — His table of cylinders — His pumps worked by a cylindrical high pressure steam engine — He made no claim to a steam engine in England — Simple device by which he probably worked his plunger pumps — Inventions of his at Vauxhall — Anecdote of him from Evelyn's Diary — Early steam projectors courtiers — Ridiculous origin of some honors — Edict of Nantes — Papin — Digesters — Safety valve — Papiu's plan to transmit power through pipes by means of air — Cause of its failure — Another plan by compressed air — Papin's experiments to move a piston by gunpowder and by steam— The latter abandoned by him — The safety valve im- proved, not invented by Papin— Mercurial safety valves— Water lute— Steam machine of Papin for raising water and imparting motion to machinery - - - - . . -441 CHAPTER VIII. Experimenters contemporary with Papin— Savery— This engineer publishes his inventions— His project for propelling vessels — Ridicules the surveyor of the navy for opposing it — His first expe- riments on steam made in a tavern — Account of them by Desaguliers and Switzer — Savery's first engine — Its operation — Engine with a single receiver — Savery's improved engine described — Gauge cocks — Excellent features of his improved engine — Its various parts connected by coupling screws — Had no safety valve — Rejected by miners on account of the danger from the boilers exploding — Solder melted by steam — Opinions respecting the origin of Savery's engine — It bears 110 relation to the piston engine — Modifications of Savery's engine by Desaguliers, Leopold, Blakey and others — Rivatz — Engines by Gensanne — De Moura — De Rigny — Francois and others — Amonton's fire mill — Newcomen and Cawley — Their engine superior to Savery's — Newcomen acquainted with the previous experiments of Papin — Circumstances favorable to the introduction of Newcomen's en- gine— Description of it — Condensation by injection discovered by chance — Chains and sectors — Savery's claim to a share in Newcomen's patent an unjust one — Merits of Newcomen and Cawley 453 CHAPTER IX. General adoption of Newcomen and Cawley's engine — Leopold's machine — Steam applied as a mover of general machinery — Wooden and granite boilers — Generating steam by the heat of the sun — Floats — Greenhouses and dwellings heated by steam — Cooking by steam — Explosive engines — Vapor engines — English, French, and American motive engines — Woisard's air machine — Vapor of mercury — Liquefied gases — Decomposition and recomposition of water - -468 BOOK V. NOVEL DEVICES FOR RAISING WATER, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF SIPHONS, COCKS, VALVES, CtEPSYDRJ2, &c. &C. CHAPTER I. Subjects treated in the fifth book — Lateral communication of motion — This observed by the ancients — Wind at the Falls of Niagara — The trombe described — Natural trombes — Tasting hot liquids — Waterspouts — Various operations of the human mouth — Currents of water— -Gulf Stream — Large rivers — Adventures of a bottle — Experiments of Venturi — Expenditure of water from various formed ajutages — Contracted vein — Cause of increased discharge from conical tubes — Sale of a water power — Regulation of the ancient Romans to prevent an excess of water from being drawn by pipes from the aqueducts .......... 475 CHAPTER H. Water raised by currents of air — Fall of the barometer during storms — Hurricanes commence at the leeward — Damage done by storms not always by the impulse of the wind — Vacuum produced by storms of wind — Draft of chimneys — Currents of wind in houses — Fire grates and parabolic jambs — Experiments with a sheet of paper — Experiments with currents of air through tubes variously connected — Effect of conical ajutages to blowing tubes — Application of these tubes to increase the draft of chimneys, and to ventilate wells, mines and ships ...... 481 CHAPTER III. Vacuum by currents of steam — Various modes of applying them in blowing tubes — Experiments- Effects of conical ajutages — Results of slight changes in the position of vacuum tubes within blow- ing ones — Double blowing tube — Experiments with it — Raising water by currents of steam — Ven- tilation of mines — Experimental apparatus for concentrating sirups in vacuo — Drawing air through liquids to promote their evaporation — Remarks on the origin of obtaining a vacuum by currents of steam ---._. ....... 489 CHAPTER IV. Spouting tubes— Water easily disturbed— Force economically transmitted by the oscillation of liquids jlication of one form to si- by their ascent and descent ^ jes attached— Experiments with various sized tubes— Observations respecting their movements— Advantages arising from inertia— Modes of communicating motion to spouting tubes— Purposes for which they are applica- ble-Thesouffleur- - V . 8 . - - -497 XVI CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. Nature's devices for raising water — Their influence — More common than other natural operations — The globe a self-moving hydraulic engine — Streams flowing on its surface — Others ejected from its bowels — Subterranean cisterns, tubes and siphons — Intermitting springs — Natural rams and pressure engines — Eruption of water on the coast of Italy — Water raised in vapor — Clouds — Wa- ter raised by steam — Geysers — Earthquakes — Vegetation — Advantages of studying it — Erroneous views of future happiness — Circulation of sap — This fluid wonderfully varied in its effects and movements — Pitcher plant and Peruvian canes — Trees of Australia — Endosmosis — Waterspouts — Ascent of liquids by capillary attraction — Tenacity and other properties of liquids — Ascent of liquids up inclined planes — Liquid drops — Their uniform diffusion when not counteracted by gravity — Their form and size — Soft and hard soldering — Ascent of water in capillary tubes limited only by its volume — Cohesion of liquids— Ascent of water through sand and rags — Rise of oil in lamp wicks and through the pores of boxwood - ...... -505 CHAPTER VI. Siphons — Mode of charging them — Principle on which their action depends — Cohesion of liquids — Siphons act in vacuo — Variety of siphons — Their antiquity — Of eastern origin — Portrayed in the tombs at Thebes — Mixed wines — Siphons in ancient Egyptian kitchens — Probably used at the feast at Cana — Their application by old jugglers — Siphons from Heron's Spiritalia — Tricks with liquids of different specific gravities — Fresh water dipped from the surface of the sea — Figures of Tanta- lus's cups — Tricks of old publicans — Magic pitcher — Goblet for unwelcome visitors — Tartar necro- mancy with cups — Roman baths — Siphons used by the ancients for tasting wine — Siphons, A. D. 1511 — Figures of modern siphons — Sucking tube — Valve siphon — Tin plate — Wirtemburg siphon — Argand's siphon — Chemists' siphons — Siphons by the author — Water conveyed over extensive grounds by siphons — Limit of the application of siphons known to ancient plumbers — Error of Porta and other writers respecting siphons — Decaus — Siphons for discharging liquids at the bend -Ram siphon _..«.---...- 514 CHAPTER VII. Fountains : variety of their forms, ornaments and accompaniments — Landscape gardeners — Curious fountains from Decaus — Fountains in old Rome — Water issuing from statues — Fountains in Pom- peii— Automaton trumpeter — Fountains by John of Bologna and M. Angelo — Old fountains in Nu- remberg, Augsburg and Brussels — Shakespeare, Drayton and S,«encer quoted — Fountains of Alci- nous — The younger Pliny's account of fountains in the gardens of his Tuscan villa — Eating in gardens — Alluded to in Solomon's Song — Cato the Censor — Singular fountains in Italy — Fountains described by Marco Paulo and other old writers — Predilection for artificial trees in fountains — Perfumed and musical fountains — Fountains within public and private buildings — Enormous cost of perfumed waters at Roman feasts — Lucan quoted — Introduction of fountains into modern thea- tres and churches recommended — Fountains in the apartments of eastern princes — Water conveyed through pipes by the ancients into fields for the use of their cattle — Three and four-way cocks - 532 CHAPTER VIII. O'opsydrae and hydraulic organs : Time measured by the sun — Obelisks — Dial in Syracuse — Time measured in the night by slow matches, candles, &c. — Modes of announcing the hours — " Jack of the clock" — Clepsydrae — Their curious origin in Egypt — Their variety — Used by the Siamese, Hindoos, Chinese, &c. — Ancient hourglasses — Indexes to water clocks — Sand clocks in China — Musical clock of Plato — Clock carried in triumph by Pompey — Clepsydra of Ctesibius — Clock pre- sented to Charles V — Modern clepsydrae — Hourglasses in coffins — Dial of the Peruvians. Hydrau- lic organs: imperfectly described by Heron and Vitruvius — Plato, Archimedes, Plutarch, Pliny, Suetonius, St. Jerome — Organs sent from Constantinople to Pepin — Water organs of Louis Debon- naire — A woman expired in ecstasies while hearing one play — Organs made by monks — Old Regal 542 CHAPTER IX. Sheet lead: Lead early known — Roman pig lead — Ancient uses of lead — Leaden and iron coffins — Casting sheet lead — Solder — Leaden books — Roofs covered with lead — Invention of rolled lead — Lead sheathing. Leaden pipes: of great antiquity — Made from sheet lead by the Romans — Ordi- nance of Justinian — Leaden pipes in Spain in the 9th century — Damascus — Leather pipes — Modern iron pipes — Invention of cast leaden pipes — Another plan in France — Joints united without solder — Invention of drawn leaden pipes — Burr's mode of making leaden pipes — Antiquity of window lead — Water injured bypassing through leaden pipes — Tinned pipes. Valves: their antiquity and variety — Nuremberg engineers. Cocks: of great variety and materials in ancient times — Hora- pollo — Cocks attached to the laver of brass and the brazen sea — Also to golden and silver cisterns in the temple at Delphi — Found in Japanese baths — Figure of an ancient bronze cock — Superior in its construction to modern ones — Cock from a Roman fountain — Numbers found at Pompeii — Silver pipes and cocks in Roman baths — Golden and silver pipes and cocks in Peruvian baths — Sliding cocks by the author. Water closets: of ancient date — Common in the east. Traps for drains, &c. ----------... 550 APPENDIX. John Bate — Phocion — Well worship — Wells with stairs — Tonrne-broche — Raising water by a screw — Perpetual motions — Chain pomps in ships — Sprinkling pots — Old frictionless pnmp — Water power — Vulcan's trip-hammers — Eolipiles — Blowpipe — Philosophical bellows — Charging eolipiles — Eolipilic idols referred to in the Bible — Palladium — Laban's images — Expansive force of steam — Steam and air — Windmills — Imprisoning chairs — Eolipilic war-machines .... 565 INDEX 575 A DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OP HYDRAULIC AND OTHER MACHINES FOR RAISING WATER. BOOK I. PRIMITIVE AND ANCIENT DEVICES FOR RAISING WATER. CHAP TEH T. The subject of raising water, interesting to Philosophers and Mechanics — Led to the invention of the Steam Engine— Connected with the present advanced state of the Arts — Origin of the useful arts lost— Their history neglected by the Ancients — First Inventors the greatest benefactors — Memorials of them perished, while accounts of warriors and their acts pervade and pollute the pages of history— A record of the origin and early progress of the arts more useful and interesting than all the works of historians «xtaut— The history of a single tool, (as that of a hammer,) invaluable— In the general wreck of the arts of the ancient*, most of their devices for raising water preserved — Cause of this — Hydraulic ma- chines of very remote origin — Few invented by the Greeks and Romans — Arrangement and division of the subject. ALTHOUGH the subject of this work may present nothing very alluring to the general reader, it is not destitute of interest to the philosopher and intelligent mechanic. The art of raising water has ever been closely connected with the progress of man in civilization, so much so, indeed, that the state of this art, among a people, may be taken as an index of their position on the scale of refinement. It is also an art, which, from its importance called forth the ingenuity of man in the infancy of soci- ety ; nor is it improbable, that it originated some of the simple machines, or mechanic poicers themselves. It was a favorite subject of research with eminent mathematicians and engineers of old ; and the labors of their successors in modern days, have been rewarded with the most valuable machine which the arts ever pre- sented to man — the STEAM ENGINE — for it was " raising of water" that exercised the ingenuity of DECAUS and WORCESTER, MORELAND and PAPIN, SAVARY and NEWCOMEN; and those illustrious men, whose sue- 2 Ancient Arts. [Book L cessive labors developed and matured that " semi-omnipotent engine," which " driveth up water by fire." A machine that has already greatly changed and immeasurably improved the state of civil society ; and one which, in conjunction with the PRINTING PRESS, is destined to renovate both the political and moral world. The subject is therefore, intimately connected with the present advanced state of the arts ; and the amazing progress made in them during the last two centuries, may be attributed in some degree to its cultivation. The origin and early history of this art, (and of all others of primitive times) are irrecoverably lost. Tradition has scarcely preserved a single anecdote or circumstance relating to those meritorious men, with whom any of the useful arts originated ; and when in process of time, HISTORY took her station in the temple of science, her professors deemed it beneath her dignity, to record the actions and lives of men, who were merely in- ventors of machines, or improvers of the useful arts ; thus nearly all knowledge of those to whom the world is under the highest of obliga- tions, has perished forever. The SCHOLAR mourns, and the ANTIQUARY weeps over the wreck of ancient learning and art — the PHILOSOPHER regrets that sufficient of both has not been preserved to elucidate several interesting discoveries, which history has mentioned ; nor to prove that those principles of science, upon which the action of some old machines depended, were understood ; and the MECHANIC inquires in vain for the processes by which his predecessors in remote ages, worked the hardest granite without iron, transported it in masses that astound us, and used them in the erection of stupendous buildings, apparently with the facility that modern workmen lay bricks, or raise the lintels of doors. The machines by which they were elevated are as unknown as the individuals who directed their movements. We are almost as ignorant of their modes of working the metals, of their al- loys which rivalled steel in hardness, of their furnaces, crucibles, and moulds ; the details of forming the ennobling statue, or the more useful skillet or cauldron. Did the ancients laminate metal between rollers, and draw wire through plates, as we do 1 or, was it extended by hammers, as some specimens of both seem to show 1a On these and a thousand other subjects, much uncertainty prevails. Unfortunately learned men of old, deemed it a part of wisdom, to conceal from the vulgar, all discoveries in science. With this view, they wrapped them in mystical figures, that the people might not apprehend them. The custom was at one time so general, that philosophers refused to leave any thing in writing, explana- tory of their researches. Whenever we attempt to penetrate that obscurity which conceals from our view, the works of the ancients, we are led to regret, that some of their MECHANICS did not undertake, for the sake of posterity and their owr fame, to write a history and description of their machines and manu- factures. We know that philosophers, generally, would not condescend to per- form such a task, or stoop to acquire the requisite information, for they deemed it discreditable to apply their energies and learning, to the eluci- dation of such subjects. (Few could boast with Hippias — who was master of the liberal and mechanical arts — the ring on his finger, the tunic, cloak, a " And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires." Exod. xxxix, 3. These plates, were probably similar to those made by the ancient goldsmiths of Mexico, which were " three quarters of a yard long, foure fingers broad, and as thicke as parch- ment." Purchas' Pilgrimage, 984. " Silver spread into plates, is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz." Jer. x, 9. Chap. l.J History polluted with accounts of Warriors. 3 and shoes which he wore, were the work of his own hands.) Plato in veighed with great indignation against Archytas and Eudoxus, for having debased and corrupted the excellency of geometry, by mechanical so- lutions, causing her to descend, as he said, from incorporeal and intellec- tual to sensible things ; and obliging her to make use of matter, which re- quires manual labor, and is the object of servile trades.* To the prevalence of such unphilosophical notions amongst the learned men of old, may be attributed, the irretrievable loss of information re- specting the prominent mechanics of the early ages, those " Searching wits, Who graced their age with new invented arts." Virgil, En. vi, 900. Their works, their inventions, and their names, are buried beneath the waves of oblivion ; whilst the light and worthless memorials of heroes, falsely so called, have floated on the surface, and history has become pol- luted with tainted descriptions of men, who, without having added an atom to the wealth, or to the happiness of society, have been permitted to riot on the fruit of other men's labors ; to wade in the blood of their species, and to be heralded as the honorable of the earth ! And still, as in former times, humanity shudders, at these monsters being held up, as they impiously are, to the admiration of the world, and even by some Christians too, as examples for our children. " We may reasonably hope," says Mr. Davies in his popular work on the Chinese, " that the science and civilization which have already greatly enlarged the bounds of our knowledge of foreign countries, may, by diminishing the vulgar admiration of such pests and scourges of the human race, as military conquerors have usually proved, advance and fa- cilitate the peaceful intercourse of the most remote countries with each other, and thereby increase the general stock of knowledge and happiness among mankind." Vol. 1, 18. "Of what utility to us at this day, is either Nimrod, Cyrus, or Alexan- der, or their successors, who have astonished mankind from time to time ? With all their magnificence and vast designs, they are returned into nothing with regard to us. They are dispersed like vapors, and have vanished like phantoms. But the INVENTORS of the ARTS and SCIENCES labored for ALL AGES. We still enjoy the fruits of their application and industry — they have procured for us, all the conveniencies of life — they have con- verted all nature to our uses. Yet, all our admiration turns generally on the side of those heroes in blood, while we scarce take any notice of what we owe to the INVENTORS OF THE ARTS." Rollings Introduction to the Arts and Sciences of the Ancients. Who that consults history, only for that which is useful, would not pre- fer to peruse a journal of the daily manipulations of the laborers and me- chanics who furnished clothing, arms, culinary utensils, and food for the armies of old — to the most eloquent descriptions of their generals, or their battles 1 And as it is now with respect to accounts of such transactions in past ages — so will it be in future with regard to similar ones of mo- dern times. Narrations of political convulsions, recitals of battles, and of honors conferred on statesmen and heroes, while dripping with human gore, will hereafter be unnoticed, or will be read with horror and disgust, while DISCOVERIES IN SCIENCE and DESCRIPTIONS OF USEFUL MACHINES, will be all in all. It is pleasing to anticipate that day, which the present extensive and extending diffusion of knowledge is about to usher in, when despotism • Plutarch's Life of Marcellus. 4 Workshops oftlie Ancients, [Book 1. shall no longer hold the GREAT MASS of our species, in a state of unnatu- ral ignorance, and of physical degradation, beneath that of the beasts which perish ; but when the mechanics of the world, the creators of its wealth, shall exercise that influence in society to which their labors en- title them. If we judged correctly of human character, we should admit that the mechanic who made the chair in which Xerxes sat, when he reviewed his mighty host, or witnessed the sea fight at Salamis, was a more use- ful member of society than that great king : — and, that the artisans who constructed the drinking vessels of Mardonius, and the brass man- gers in which his horses were fed, were really more worthy of posthu- mous fame, than that general, or the monarch he served : and, if it be more virtuous, more praiseworthy, to alleviate human sufferings than to cause or increase them ; then that old mechanician, who, when Marcus Sergius lost his hand in the Punic war, furnished him with an iron one, was an incomparably better man, than that or any other mere warrior: and so was he, who, according to Herodotus, constructed an artificial foot for Hegisostratus.a Notwithstanding the opinion of Plato — we believe a description of the WORKSHOPS of D.EDALUS, and of TALUS his nephew; those of THEODO- RUS of Samos and of G-LAUCUS of Chios, (the alleged inventor of the in- laying of metals ;) an account of the process of making the famous Lesbian and Dodonean cauldrons,1* and of the method by which those celebrated paintings in glass, were executed, fragments of which have come down to us, and which have puzzled, and still continue to puzzle, both our ar- tists and our chemists ; (the figures in which, of the most minute and ex- quisite finish, pass entirely and uniformly through the glass ;)c if to these were added, the particulars of a working jeweller's shop of Persepolis and of Troy; of a lapidary's and an engraver's of Memphis; of a cut- ler's and upholsterer's of Damascus ; and of a cabinet maker's and bra- zier's of Rome ; together with those of a Sidonian or Athenian ship yard — such a record would have been more truly useful, and more really in- teresting^ than almost all that ancient philosophers ever wrote, or poets ever sung. A description of the FOUNDRIES and FORGES of India and of Egypt; of Babylon and Byzantium ; of Sidon, and Carthage and Tyre ; would have imparted to us a more accurate and extensive knowledge of the ancients, of their manners and customs, their intelligence and progress in science, than all the works of their historians extant ; and would have been of infinitely greater service to mankind. Had a narrative been preserved, of all the circumstances which led to the invention and early applications of the LEVER, the SCREW, the WEDGE, PULLEY, WHEEL and AXLE, &c. ; and of those which contributed to the discovery and working of the metals, the use and management of fire, agriculture, spinning of thread, matting of felt, weaving of cloth, &c. it would have been the most perfect history of our species — the most valua- ble of earthly legacies. Though such a work might have been deemed of trifling import by philosophers of old, with what intense interest would it have been perused by scientific men in modern times ! and what pure delight its examination would have imparted to every inquisitive and intelligent mind ! Such a record, would not only have filled the mighty chasm in the early history of the world, but would have had an important influence in pro* » Herod, is, 37. b Eneid, iii, 595, and v, 350. Herod, iv, 61. c Ed. Encyc, Art. Glass. Chap. 1.] And their Tools. 5 moling the best interests of our race. It would have embraced incidents respecting man's early wants, and his rude efforts to supply them ; par- ticulars respecting eminent individuals, and the origin of antediluvian dis- coveries and inventions, &c. of such thrilling interest, as no modern no- velist could equal, nor the most fertile imagination surpass. It would have included a detail of those eventful experiments in which iron was first cast into cauldrons, forged into hatchets, and drawn into wire; with an account of the individuals, by whose ingenuity and perse- verance, these invaluable operations, were, for the first time on this pla- net, successfully performed. Finally, it would have convinced us, that these men were the true HEROES of old, the genuine benefactors of their species, whose labors were for the benefit of "'till ages, and all people ; and an account of whose lives (not those of robbers,) should have occupied the pages of history, and whose names should have been embalmed in ever- lasting remembrance. A chronological account of a few mechanical implements, would have af- forded a clearer insight into the state of society in remote times, than any wri- tings now subsisting. Nay, if we could realize a complete history of a single tool, asahammer, asaw, achisel, a hatchet, an auger, or a loom, it would form a more comprehensive history of the world, than has ever been, or perhaps ever will be written. Take for example a hammer; what a multitude of in- teresting circumstances are inseparably connected with its development and early uses ! circumstances, which, if we were in possession of, would explain almost all that is dark and mysterious respecting our ancient pro- genitors. A history of this implement would embrace the origin and ge- neral progress of all the useful arts ; and would elucidate the civil and scientific acquirements of man, in every age. It would open to our view, the public and private economy of the ancients ; introduce us into the interior of their workshops, their dwellings and their temples ; it would illustrate their manners, politics, religion, superstition, &c. In tra- cing the various purposes to which it was applied, we should become ac- quainted with all the material transactions in the lives of some ancient in- dividuals from their birth to their death ; and also, with the circumstances which led to the rise and fall of empires. Like the celebrated "History of a G-uinea," it would open to our inspection all the minutias in private and public life. How infinitely various, are the materials, sizes, forms, and uses of the hammer ] and how indicative are they all of the state of society and man- mers 1 At first, a club ; then a rude mallet of wood ; next, the head form- ed of stone, and bound to the handle by withes, or by the sinews of ani- mals ; afterward, the heads formed of metal. These, before iron or steel was known, were often of copper and even of gold ; and subsequently, those of the latter material were faced, like some ancient chisels, with the more scarce and expensive iron.a Ancient hammers varied as now in size, from the huge sledge of the Cyclops, to the portable one, with which Vulcan chased the more delicate work on the shield of Achilles, — from the maul,, by which masses of ore were separated from their beds in the mines, to the diminutive ones, which Myrmecides of Miletus, and Theodoras of Samos, used to fabricate car- riages and horses of metal, which were so minute as to be covered by the a"It appears that in the tangible remains of smelting furnaces, found in Siberia, that gold hammers, knives, chisels, &c. have been discovered, the edges of which were skil- fully tipped with iron ; showing the scarcity of the ore, the difficulty of manufacturing it, and the plenty and apparently trifling value of the other." Scientific Tracts, Bos- ton, 1833. Vol. iii, 411. 6 The Hammer. [Book I, wings of a fly. Itajigwe has always varied with its uses, and none but modern workers in the metals can realize the endless variety of its shapes, which the ancient smiths required, to fabricate the wonderfully diversified articles of their rnanuafcture : from the massive brazen altars and chariots, to the chased goblets, and invaluable tripods or vases, for the possession of which, whole cities contended. The history of the hammer in its widest range, would let us into the secrets of the statuaries and stone cutters of old : we should learn the pro- cess of making those metallic compounds, and working them into tools, \vith which the Egyptian mechanics sculptured those indurate columns that resist the best tempered steel of modern days. It would introduce us to the ancient chariot makers, cutlers and armorers; and would teach us how to make and temper the blades of Damascus ; as well as those which were forged in the extensive manufactory of die father of Demosthenes. It would make us familiar with the arts of the ancient carpenters, coiners, coopers and jewellers. We should learn from it, the process of forging dies and striking money in the temple of Juno Moneta ; of making the bod- kins and pins for the head dresses of Greek and Roman ladies ; while at the religious festivals, we should behold other forms of this implement in use, to knock down victims for sacrifice by the altars. Finally, a perfect history of the hammer, would not only have made us acquainted with the origin and progress of the useful arts, among the pri meval inhabitants of this hemisphere ; but would have solved the great problems respecting their connection with, and migration from the eastern world. But although we justly deplore the want of information relating to the arts in general of the remote ancients ; it is probable that few of their devices for raising water have been wholly lost. If there was one art of more importance than another to the early inhabitants of CENTRAL ASIA and the VALLEY OF THE NILE, it was that of raising water for agricultural purposes. Not merely their general welfare, but their very existence depended upon the artificial irriga- tion of the land ; hence their ingenuity was early directed to the construction ofmarJiines for this purpose ; and they were stimulated in devising them, by the most powerful of all inducements. That machines must have been indis- pensable in past, as in present times, is evident from the climates and phy- sical constitution of those countries. Their importance therefore, and uni- versal use, have been the means of their preservation. Nor is it probable that any of them were ever lost in the numerous political convulsions of old. These seldom affected the pursuits of agriculture, and never changed the long established modes of cultivation ; besides, hydraulic apparatus, from their utility, were as necessary to the conquerors as the conquered.* Perhaps in no department of the useful arts, has less change taken place than in Asiatic and Egyptian agriculture. It is the same now, that it was thousands of years ago. The implements of husbandry, modes of irriga- tion, and devices for raising water are similar to those in use, when Ninus and Nebuchadnezzar, Sesostris, Solomon, and Cyrus flourished. And it would appear that the same uniformity in these machines prevailed over all the east, in ancient as in modern times : a fact accounted for, by the great and constant intercourse between continental and neighboring nations ; the practice of warriors, of transporting the inhabitants and especially the me- chanics and works of art, into other lands ; and also from the great impor- tance and universal use of artificial irrigation. aBatt'es wero sometimes fought in one field, while laborers were cultivating unmo lested the land of an adjoining one. Chap. 1.] Hydraulic machines of the Ancients not lost. 7 Every part of the eastern world has often had its inhabitants torn from it by war, and their places occupied by others. This practice of conque rors was sometimes modified, as respected the peasantry of a subdued country, but it appears that from very remote ages, mechanics were inva- riably carried off. The Phenicians, in a war with the Jews, deprived them of every man who could forge iron.a " There was no smith found through- out all the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, lest the Hebrews make swords and spears."" SHALMANEZER, when he took Samaria, carried the people " away out of their own land to Assyria, and the king of Assyria, brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof."b When Nebuchad- nezzar took Jerusalem, he carried off, with the treasure of the temple, " all the craftsmen and smiths." Jeremiah says he carried away the "carpen- ters and smiths, and brought them to Babylon." Diodorus says, the pa- laces of Persepolis and Susa were built by mechanics that Cambyses car- ried from Egypt.6 Ancient history is full of similar examples. Alexan- der practised it to a great extent. After his death, there was found among his tablets, a resolution to build several cities, some in Europe and some in Asia; and his design was to people those in Asia with Europeans, and those in Europe with Asiatics.d In this manner some of the most useful arts, necessarily became common to all the nations of old ; and their per- petuity in some degrree secured, especially such as related to the tillage and irrigation of the soil. We are inclined to believe that the hydraulic machines of the Assy- rians, Babylonians, Persians and Egyptians, have all, or nearly all, come down to us. Most of them have been continued in uninterrupted use in those countries to the present times ; while others have reached us through the . Greeks and Romans, Saracens and Moors ; or, have been obtained in modern days from China and Hindostan. It is remarkable that almost all machines for raising water, originated with the older nations of the world; neither the Greeks, (if the screw of Conon be excepted, and even it was invented IN EGYPT,) nor the Romans, added a single one to the ancient stock; nor is this surprising; for with few exceptions, those in use at the present day, are either identical with, or but modifications of those of the ancients. It is alleged that Archytas of Tarentum, 400, B. C. invented "hydrau- lic machines" but no account of them has reached our times, nor do we know that they were designed to raise water. They consisted probably, in the application of the windlass or crane, (the latter it is said he invent- ed) to move machines for this purpose. Had any , important or useful ma- chine for raising water, been devised by him, it would have been continued in use ; and would certainly have been noti«ed by Vitruvius, who was ac- quainted with his inventions, and who mentions him several times in his work. 1 b. chap. 1., and 9 b. chap. 3.e We have arranged the machines described in this work in five classes ; to each of which, a separate BOO-K is devoted. A few chapters of the first book, are occupied with remarks on WATER; on the ORIGIN OF VES- al Sam. chap, xiii, 19, 22. b2 Kings chap, xvii, 23, 24. cGoguet, Tern, iii, 13. ''•Diodorus Siculus, quo ted by Robertson. India page 191. See Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, 1 vol. 206. *Archytas made an automaton pigeon of wood which would fly. It was this probably, which gave the idea to the modern mechanician of Nuremburgh, who constructed an Beagle, which flew towards Charles V. on bis entrance into that city 8 Division of the Subject. [Book I SELS for containing it; on WELLS and FOUNTAINS, and customs connected with them, &c. Some persons are apt to suppose the term HYDRAULIC machines^ compri. ses every device for raising water; but such is not the fact. Apparatus propelled by it, as tide mills, &c. are hydraulic machines; these do not raise the liquid at all; while on the contrary, all those for elevating it, which are comprised in the second class, are pneumatic or hydro-pneumatic machines, their action depending on the pressure and elasticity of the at- mosphere. The first Class includes those, by which the liquid is elevated in movable vessels, by mechanical force applied to the latter. Water raised in a bucket, suspended to a cord, and elevated by the hand,, or by a windlass ; the common pole and bucket, used daily in our rain wa- ter cisterns; the sweep or lever so common among our farmers, are exam- ples of this class; so are the various wheels, as the tympanum, noria, chain of pots; and also the chain pump, and its modifications. This Class embraces all the principal machines used in the ancient world; and the greater part of modern hydraulic machinery is derived from it. The second Class comprises such as raise water through tubes, by means of the elasticity and pressure, or weight of the atmosphere ; as sucking pumps, so named; siphons, syringes, &c. The aplication of these machines, unlike those of the first class is limi- ted, because the atmosphere is only sufficient to support a column of water of from thirty to thirty five feet in perpendicular height; and in elevated countries, (as Mexico) much less. Numerous modifications of these ma- chines have been made in modern times, but the pump itself is of ancient origin. Those which act by compression are described in the third Class. The liquid being first admitted into a close vessel, is then forcibly expelled through an aperture made for the purpose. In some machines this is effect- ed by a solid body impinging on the surface of the liquid; as the piston of a pump: in others, the weight of a column of water, is used to accom- plish the same purpose. Syringes, fire engines, pumps which are constructed on the same princi- ple as the common bellows, are examples of the former; and the famous machine at Chemnitz in Hungary, Heron'sfountain, pressure engines, of the latter. Nor can the original invention of these be claimed by the mod- erns. Like the preceding, they were first developed by the energy of an- cient intellects. Fourth Class* There is however another class, which embraces several machines, which are > supposed to be exclusively of modern origin j and some of them are by far the most interesting and philosophical of all. Such as the Belior hydraulique, or ram of Montgolfier ; the centrifugal pump; the fire engine, so named because it raised water "by the help of" fire;" that is, the original steam engine, or machine of Worcester, More- land, Savaiy and Papin. In the fifth Class, we have noticed such modern devices, as are either practically useful, or interesting from their novelty, or the principles upon which they act. An account of siphons is comprised in this class. Re- marks on natural modes of raising water. Observations on cocks, pipes* valves> &c; and some general reflections are added* Chap. 2.] Water. CHAPTER II. WATER — Its importance in the economy of nature — Forms part of all substances — Food of all aui. mals — Great physical changes effected by it — Earliest source of inanimate motive power — Its distribu- tion over the earth not uniform — Sufferings of the orientals from want of water — A knowledge of tin? necessary to understand their writers — Political ingenuity of Mahomet — Water a prominent feature in the paradise of the Asiatics — Camels often slain by travellers, to obtain water from their stomachs — Cost of a draught of such water — Hydraulic machine referred to in Ecclesiastes — The useful arts origi- nated in Asia — Primitive modes of procuring water — Using the hand as a cup — Traditions respecting Adam — Scythian tradition — Palladium — Observations on the primitive state of man and the origin of the arts. WATER is, in many respects, the most important substance known to man : it is more extensively diffused throughout nature than almost any other. It covers the greater part of the earth's surface, and is found to pervade its interior wherever excavations are made. It enters into every or nearly every combination of matter, and was supposed by some ancient philoso- phers, to be the origin of all matter; the primordial element; of which every object in nature was formed. The mineral kingdom, with its varie- gated substances and chrystalizations; the infinitely diversified and enchan- ting productions of the vegetable world; and every living being in anima- ted nature, were supposed to be so many modifications of this aqueous fluid. According to VITRUVIUS, the Egyptian priests taught, that "all things con- sist of water;"* and Egypt was doubtless the source whence Thales and others derived the doctrine. PLINY, says " this one element seemeth to rule and command all the rest."b And it was remarked by PINDAR — "Of all things, water is the best." Modern science has shown that it is not a simple substance, but is com- posed of at least two others ; neither of which, it is possible, is elementary. Water not only forms part of the bodies of all animals,0 but it constitutes the greatest portion of their food. Every comfort of civilized or savage life depends more or less upon it; and life itself cannot be sustained without it. If there were no rains or fertilizing dews, vegetation would cease, and every animated being would perish. Even terrestrial animals may be considered as existing in water, for the atmosphere in which we live and move, is an im- mense aerial reservoir of it, and one more capacious than all the seas on the face of the earth. Water is also the prominent agent, by which those great physical and chemical changes are effected, which the earth is continually undergoing; and the stupendous effects produced by it, through the long series of past ages, have given rise, in modern times, to some of the most interesting departments of physical science. The mechanical effects produced by it, render it of the highest impor- tance in the arts. It was the earliest source of inanimate motive power; and has contributed more than all other agents to the amelioration of man's condition. By its inertia in a running stream, and by its gravity in a falling one, it has superseded much human toil; and has administered to our wants, our pleasures and our profits; and by its expansion into the aeriform a Proem to b. viii. b Nat. Hist, xxxi, 1. c A human corpse which weighed an hundred and sixty pounds — when the moisture was evaporated, weighed but twelve. 10 Religious Opinions respecting Water. [Book I. state, it appears to be destined, (through the steam engine) to accomplish the greatest moral and physical changes, which the intellectual inhabitants of this planet have ever experienced, since our species became its denizens. The distribution of water is not uniform over the earth's surface, nor yet under its crust. While in some countries, natural fountains, capacious rivers, and frequent rains, present abundant sources for all the purposes of human life ; in others, it is extremely scarce, and procured only with difficulty, and constant labor. This has ever been the case in various parts of Asia, and also in Egypt and other parts of Africa, where rain seldom falls. It is only from a knowledge of this fact and of the temperature and debilitating influences of eastern climates, that we are enabled to appreciate the pecu- liar force and beauty of numerous allusions to water, which pervade all the writings of eastern authors, both sacred and profane. Nor without this knowledge could we understand many of the peculiar customs of the people of the east. MAHOMET well knew that his followers, living under the scorching rays of the sun, their flesh shrivelled with the desiccating influences of the air, and " dried up with thirst," could only be moved to embrace his doctrines by such promises as he made them, of " springs of living waters," "security in shades," " amidst gardens" and " fountains pouring forth plen- ty of water."a Nor could his ingenuity have devised a more appropriate punishment, than that with which he threatened unbelieving Arabs in hell. They were to have no mitigation of their torments; no cessation of them, except at certain intervals, when they were to take copious draughts of "filthy and boiling water."b It was universally believed by the ancients, that the MANES of their deceased friends experienced a suspension of punishment in the infernal regions, while partaking of the provisions which their relatives placed on their graves. The Arabian legislator improved upon the tradition. The orientals have always considered water, either figuratively or lite- rally, as one of the principal enjoyments of a future state. Gardens, shades, and fountains, are the prominent objects in their paradise. In the Revelations we are told " the Lamb shall lead them, (the righteous,) un- to living fountains of waters." Chap, vii, 17. — " A pure river of water of life." Chap, xxii, 1. The book which contains an account of the religion and philosophy of the Hindoos, is named ANBERTREND, signifying, " the cistern of the waters of life."c Inhabitants of temperate climates, seldom or never experience that ex-' cruciating thirst implied in such expressions as " the soul panting for wa- ter;" nor that extremity of despair when, under such suffering, the exhaus- ted traveller arrives at a place " where no water is." Under these cir- cumstances, the orientals have often been compelled to slay their camels, for the sake of the water they might find in their stomachs; and a sum exceeding five hundred dollars, has been given for a single draught of it. It is necessary to experience something like this, in order fully to com- prehend the importance of the Savior's precept, respecting the giving " a cup of cold water," and to know the real value of such a gift. We should then see that sources of this liquid are to the orientals, literally "fountains of life," and " wells of salvation." And when we become acquainted with their methods of raising water, we shall perceive how singularly apposite are those illustrations, which the author of Ecclesiastes has drawn from "the pitcher broken at the fountain;" and from "the wheel broken at the cis- tern." Chap, xii, 6. 8 SALE'S Koran, chaps. 55, 76, 83. bKoran, chaps. 14, 22, 37. cMillion of Facts, p. 253. Chap. 2.] Primitive Modes of Quenching Thirst. 11 In attempting to discover the origin, and to trace the progress of the art of raising water, we must have recourse to ASIA, the birthplace of the arts and sciences ; from whence, as from a centre, they have become extended to the circumference of the earth. It was there the original families of our race dwelt, and the inventive faculties of man were first developed. It was from the ancient inhabitants of that continent that much of the know- ledge, nearly all the arts, and not a few of the machines which we possess at this day, were derived. That man at the first imitated the lower animals in quenching his thirst at the running stream, there can be no doubt. It was natural, and because it was so, his descendants have always been found, when under similar cir- cumstances, to follow his example. The inhabitants of New Holland, and other savages quench their thirst in this manner, (i. e. by laying down.) The Indians of California were observed by Slielvock in 1719, to pursue the same method. " When they want to drink they go to the river."a The heathen deities, who in general were distinguished men and wo- men, that were idolized after death, are represented as practising this and similar primeval customs. Thus Ovid describes LATONA on a journey, and languishing with thirst, she arrives at a brook, And kneeling on the brink Stooped at the fresh repast, prepared to drink, But was hindered by the rabble race. Metam. vi, 500. When circumstances rendered it difficult to reach the liquid with the mouth, then " the liollow of the hand " was used to transfer it. Gideon's soldiers pursued both modes in allaying their thirst ;b and it was the practice of the last, which Diogenes witnessed in a boy at Athens, which induced that philosopher to throw away his jug, as an implement no longer necessary. Virgil represents Eneas practising it : Then water in his hollow palm he took From Tyber's flood. En. viii, 95. Dryden. And Turnus, in the absence of a suitable vessel, made libations in the' same way. The practice was common. As by the brook he stood, He scooped the water from the chrystal flood ; Then with his hands the drops to heaven he throws, And loads the powers above with offered vows. " At sunrise, the Bramins take water out of a tank with the hollow of their hands, which they throw sometimes behind and sometimes before them, in- voking Brama."c Herodotus, describing the Nasamones, an ancient people of northern Africa, observes, " when they pledge their word, they drink alternately from each other's hands ;" (b. iv, 172.) a custom still retained among their descendants. It is, according to Dr. Shaw, " the only ceremony that is used by the Algerines in their marriages." (Travels, p. 303.) A Hindoo, says Mr. Ward, " drinks out of a brass cup or takes up li- quids in the balls of his hands." (View of the Hindoos, p. 130.) This mode of drinking may appear to us constrained and awkward ; but in warm cli- mates, the flexibility of the human body, and custom, make the performance of it easy and not ungraceful. " I drank repeatedly as I walked along, wherever the pebbles at the bottom gleamed clearest — -just deep enough to use one's hand as a cup." a Voyages round the World, ii, 231. Lon. 1774 b Judges, vii, 5, 6. c Sonnerat, Voyage to the East Indies and China, i. 161. Calcutta, 1789. 12 Traditions of Man, [Book I. (Lord Lindsay's Travels, letter 7, Arabia.) Another English traveller no- ticed women in India use " their hands as ladles to fill their pitchers." Some writers suppose that Adam, at the beginning of his existence, was not subject to such inconvenient modes of supplying his natural wants. They will have it, that he possessed the knowledge of a philosopher, and was equally expert as a modern mechanic, in applying it to the practical purposes of life. It need scarcely be remarked, that this is imaginary : we might as well credit the visionary tales of the rabbis, or digest the equally authentic accounts of Mahomedan writers. According to these, Adam must have been a blacksmith, for he brought down from paradise with him, five things made of iron ; an anvil, a pair of tongs, two hammers, a large and a small one, and a needle! Analogous to this is the affirmation of the Scyth- ians, mentioned by Herodotus,8 that there fell from heaven into the Scythian district, four things made of gold; a plough, a yoke, an axe, and a goblet. The palladium of Troy, it was said, also, fell down from heaven. It was a small statue of Pallas, holding a distaff and spindle* We believe there is no authoiity in the bible, either for the superiority of Adam's knowledge, or of the circumstances in which he was placed : on the contrary, Moses represents him and his immediate descendants, in that rude state, in which all the original and distinct tribes of men have been found at one time or another; living on the spontaneous productions of the earth, on fruits and roots ; ignorant of the existence and use of the metals, (and there could be no civilization where these were unknown;) naked and in- sensible of the advantages of clothing: in process of time, using a slight co- vering of leaves, or other vegetable productions, and subsequently applying the skins of animals to the same purpose; then constructing huts or dwellings of the leaves and branches of trees; attaining the knowledge of, and use of fire ; and making slight attempts to cultivate the earth ; for slight indeed they must have been, in the infancy of the human race, before animal power •was applied to agricultural labor, or the implements of husbandry were known. Of these last, rude implements formed of sticks, might have been, and probably were used, as they have been by rude people in all ages. Virgil's description of the aborigines of Italy, previous to the reign of Saturn, is merely a poetic version of traditions of man in primeval times : Nor laws they knew, nor manners, nor the care Of lab'ring oxen, nor the shining share, (the plough.) Nor arts of gain, nor what they gained to spare. Their exercise the chase : the running flood Supplied their thirst : the trees supplied their food. Then Saturn came. En. viii, 420. Vitruvius says, " In ancient times, men, like wild beasts, lived in forests, caves, and groves, feeding on wild food; and that they acquired the art of producing fire, from observing it evolved from the branches of trees, when violently rubbed against each other, during tempestuous winds."0 Similar traditions of their ancestors were preserved by all the ancient nations, and some of their religious ceremonies were based upon them. Thus at the Plynteria, a festival of the Greeks in honor of Minerva, it was customary to carry in the procession a cluster of Jigs, which intimated the progress of civilization among the first inhabitants of the earth, as figs served them for food, after they had acquired a disrelish for acorns. The Arca- dians eat apples till the Lacedemonians warred with them.d The oak was revered because it afforded man in the first ages, both food and drink, by its acorns and honey, (bees frequently making their hives aiv, 5. b These and similar traditions of other people, indicate the extreme antiquity if the implements named. The ancients were as ignorant of their origin as we are. c ii, 1. d Plutarch in Alcibiades and Coriolanus. Ohap. 2.] In Primeval Times. 13 upon it,) and from this circumstance probably, was it made " sacred to Jupi- ter." The elder Pliny, in the proem to his 16th book, speaks of trees which bear mast, which says he, " ministered the first food unto our fore- fathers." Thus Ovid in his description of the golden age: — The teeming earth, yet guiltless of the plough, And unprovoked, did fruitful stores allow : Content with food which nature freely bred, On wildings nnd on strawberries they fed ; Cornels and bramble-berries gave the rest, And falling acorns furnished out the feast. Metam. ii, 135. In the ancient histories of the Chinese, it is recorded of their remote an- cestors, that they were entirely naked and lived in caves ; their food wild herbs and fruits, and the raw flesh of animals ; until the art of obtaining fire by the rubbing of two sticks together was discovered, and husbandry introduced. There are persons however, who suppose it dishonoring the Creator, to imagine that ADAM, the immediate work of his hands, and the intellectual and moral head of the human family, should at any period of his existence have been destitute of many of those resources which the Indians of our continent, and other savages possess ; although it is evident, that some time must have elapsed before he could realize, (if he ever did,) all the conveniences which even they enjoy. There is nothing unreasonable or unscriptural in supposing that all the primitive arts originated in man's immediate wants. Indeed, they could not have been introduced in any other way, for it is preposterous to sup- pose the Creator would directly reveal an art to man, the utility of which he could not perceive, and the exercise of which his wants did not require. Nor could any art have been preserved in the early ages, except it fur- nished conveniences which could not otherwise be procured. On no other consideration could the early inhabitants of the world have been in- duced to practice it. But when success attended the exercise of their in- genuity in devising means to supply their natural and artificial wants, the simple arts \vould be gradually introduced, and their progress and perpe- tuity secured by practice and by that alone. This appears to have been the opinion of the ancients: Jove willed that man, by long experience taught, Should various arts invent by gradual thought. Geor. i, 150. 14 Original Water Vessels [Book I CHAPTER III. ORIGIN or VESSELS for containing water— The Calabash the first one— It has always been used- Found by Columbus in the cabins of Amencans— Inhabitants of New Zealand, Java, Sumatra, and of the Pacific Islands employ it— Principal vessel of the Africans— Curious remark of Pliny respecting it —Common among the ancient Mexicans, Romans and Egyptians— Offered by the latter people on their »ltars— The model after which vessels of capacity were originally formed— Its figure still preserved in ieveral— Ancient American vessels copied from it— Peruvian bottles-Gurgulcts-The form of the Cala- bash prevailed in the vases and goblets of the ancients— Extract from Persius' Satires— Ancient veisels for ht ating water modeled after it— Pipkin— Sauce-pan— Anecdote of a Roman Dictator— The com- mon cast iron cauldron, of great antiquity ; similar in shape to those used in Egypt, in the time of Ra- mese* --Often referred to in the Bible and in the Iliad— Grecian, Roman, Celtic, Chinese, and Peruvian cauldi ons— Expertness of Chinese tinkers— Croesus and the Delphic oracle— Uniformity in the figure of cauldrons— Cause of this— Superiority of their form over straight sided boilers — Brazea cauldrons highly prized— WATER POTS of the Hindoos— Women drawing water — Auecdote of Darius and a young female of Sardis — Dexterity of oriental women in balancing water pots — Origin of the Canopus Ingenuity and fraud of an Egyptian priest — Ecclesiastical deceptions in the middle ages. WATER being equally necessary as more solid food, man would early be impelled by his appetite, to procure it in larger quantities than were re- quired to allay his thirst upon a single occasion; and, also the means by which he might convey it with him, in his wanderings, and to his family. It is not improbable that this was the first of man's natural wants which required the exercise of his inventive faculties to supply. The luxuri- ance of the vegetable region, in which all agree that he was placed, fur- nished in abundance the means that he sought ; and which his natural sa- gacity would lead him, almost instinctively, to adopt. The CALABASH or GOURD, was probably the first vessel used by man for collecting and con- taining water: and although we have -no direct proof of this, there is evidence, (that may be deemed equally conclusive,) in the general fact — that man, in the infancy of the arts, has always, when under similar cir- cumstances, adopted the same means, to accomplish the same objects. Of this, proofs innumerable, might be adduced from the history of the old world, particularly with regard to the uses and application of natural productions; and when at the close of the fifteenth century, Columbus opened the way to a new world, having in his search after one continent dis- covered another (of which neither he, nor his contemporaries ever dreamt, and which in extent exceeded all that his visions ever portrayed ;) he found the CALABASH the principal vessel in use among the inhabitants, both for containing and transporting \vater. The calabashes of the Indians, (says Washington Irving,) served all the purposes of glass and earthenware, supplying them with all sorts of do- mestic utensils. They are produced on stately trees, of the size of elms.a The New Zealanders possessed no other vessel for holding liquids ; and the same remark is applicable at the present day to numerous savage tribes. Osbeck, in his Voyage to China, remarks, that the Javanese sold to Eu- ropean ships, among other necessaries, " bottles of gourds filled with wa- ter, as it is made up for their own use."b When Kotzebue was at Owhyhee, Tamaahmaah the king, although he » living's Colum. i, 105, and Penny Mag. for 1834, p. 416. b i, 150. Clmp. 3 ] The Calabash. 15 possessed elegant European table utensils, used at dinner, a gourd contain- ing taro-dough, into which he dipped his fingers, and conveyed it by them to his mouth, observing to the Russian navigator, " this is the cus- tom in my country and I will not depart from it."a This conduct of Ta- maahmaah, resembled that of Motezuma. Solis observes, that he ha^ " cups of gold and salvers of the same," but that he sometimes drank out of cocoas and natural shells.b When Kotzebue revisited the Radack Islands, " he carried to them seeds of gourds for valuable vessels," as well as others of which the fruit is eaten.c " There is a gourd more esteemed by the inhabitants of Johanna for the large shell, than for the meat. It will hold a pailful. Its figure is like a man's head, and therefore called a calabash."*1 The people of Sumatra drink out of the fruit called labu, resembling the calabash of the West Indies : a hole being made in the side of the neck and another one at the top for vent. In drinking they generally hold the vessel at a distance above their mouths, (like the ancient Greeks and Romans) and catch the stream as it falls ; the liquid descending to the stomach without the action of swallowing.® The Japanese have a tradition that the first man owed his being to a calabash/ Capt. Harris, in his " Wild sports of Southern Africa" (chap, xvii.) in describing the residence of the king of Kapaue, observes, " the furniture consisted exclusively of calabashes of beer, ranged round the wall." And again in chap, xx : — " a few melons, rather deserving the name of vegeta- bles, were the only fruit we met with ; and these I presume are nurtured chiefly for the gourd, which becomes their calabash or water flagon." Clavigero says, " the drinking vessels of the ancient Mexicans, were made of a fruit similar to gourds. "£ For such purposes, the calabash has ever been used wherever it was known, and will continue to be so, as long as it grows and man lives. The elder Pliny, in speaking of the cultivation of gourds, a species of which were used as food by the Romans, observes, " of late they have been used in baths and hot houses for pots and pitchers ;" but he adds, that they were used in ancient times to contain wine, " in place of rund- lets and barrels." From him we learn that the ancients had discovered the means of controlling their forms at pleasure. He says, long gourds are. produced from seeds taken from the neck ; while those from the middle produce round or spherical ones, and those from the sides, bring forth such as are short and thick?* Among the offerings which the Egyptians placed on their altars, was the gourd. An undeniable proof of its value in their estimation; for no- thing was ever offered by the ancients to their gods, which was not highly esteemed by themselves.1 The consecration of this primeval vessel, in common with other objects of ancient sacrifice, doubtless originated in its universal use in the early ages; and most likely gave rise to the subse- quent practice of dedicating cups and goblets, of gold, silver, and some- times of precious stones. As the gourd or calabash was not only the first vessel used to collect and convey water, but one apparently designed by the Creator for these purposes, a figure of it is here given. * Voyage Discov. Lon. 1821. i, 313, and ii, 193. b Conquest Mexico, Lon. 1724. iii, 83. c iii, 175. d A New Account of East India and Persia, by Dr. Fryer. Lon. 1698. 17 "Marden's Sumat. 61. f Montanus' Japan. 275. t Hist, of Mexico. Lon. 1837. i. 438. h Nat. Hist, xix, 5. j Wilkinson i, 276. 16 Ancient Vases. [Book I. This interesting production of nature is entitled to par- ticular notice, because, it is, in all probability, the original model of the earliest artificial vessels of capacity ; the pattern from which they were formed. It is impossible to glance at the figure without recognizing its striking re- semblance to our jugs, flasks, jars, demijohns, &c. In- deed when man first began to make vessels of clay, he had no other pattern to guide him in their formation but this, one with which he had been so long familiar, and the No. i. figure of which experience had taught him was so well adapted to his wants. Independent of other advantages of this form, it is the best to impart strength to fragile materials. That the long necked vases of the ancients were modeled after it, is obvious. Many of them differ nothing from it in form, except in the ad- dition of a handle and base. The oldest vessels figured in the GRANDE DESCRIPTION OF EGYPT, by the Savans of France, and in Mr. Wilkinson's late work on the ancient Egyptians, are fac-similes of it. The same remark applies to those of the Hindoos and Chinese. No. 2. Ancient Vases. The first three on the left are of earthenware from Thebes, from Wilkinson's second volume, p. 345, 354. " Golden ewers" of a similar form were used by the rich Egyptians for containing water, to wash the hands and feet of their guests, (page 202.) The next is Etruscan, from the " History of the ancient people of Italy." Florence 1832. Plate 82. The adjoining one is a Chinese vase, from " Designs of Chinese Build- ings, Furniture," &c. Lon. 1757. The last is from Egypt. Similar shaped vessels of the Greeks, Romans, and other people might easily be pro- duced. See Salt's Voyage to Abyssinia, page 408, and Grande Descrip- tion, E. M. Vol. 2. Plates I, I, and F, F. In the Hamilton Collection of Vases, examples may be found. In the splendid volume of plates to D'Agincourt's Storia Dell' Arte, the figure of the gourd may be seen to have prevailed in artificial vessels in the fourth, fifth, and up to the twelfth centuries. Numerous vessels from the tombs of the INCAS, are identical in figure with the calabash; while others, retaining its general feature, have the bellied part worked into resemblances of the human face. As several old Peruvian bottles exhibit a peculiar and useful feature, we have inserted (figure 3,) a representation of one, in the possession of J. R. Chilton, M. D. of this city. An opening is formed in the inner side of the handle which communicates with the interior of the vessel, by a smaller one made through the side, as shown in the section. By this device air is admit- ted, and a person can either drink from, or pour out the contents, with- (lhap. 3.] Peruvian Vessels. 17 out experiencing that disagreeable gurgling which accompanies the emptying of a modern bottle. The openings are so arranged as to form a very shrill whistle — by blowing into the mouth of the vessel, a sound is produced, equal to that from a boatswain's call on board a man of war. These vessels have been noticed by most travelers in South America. They are some- times found double — two being- connected at No. 3. Peruvian Bottle. . , - , . ° the bottom with only one discharging orifice. Some are of silver. Frezier, among others, gives a figure of one resembling two gourds united. It " consists of two bottles joined together, each about six inches high, having a hole (tube) of communication at the bottom. One of them is open, and the other has on its orifice a little animal, like a mon- key, eating a cod of some sort ; under which is a hole which makes a whist- ling when water is poured out of the mouth of the other bottle, or when that within is but shaken ; because the air being pressed along the surface of both bottles, is forced out at that little hole in a violent manner."* These whistles are so constructed, as to play either when the air is drawn in through them, or forced out. Perhaps the water organs of the ancients, were originally little more than an assemblage of similar vessels. M. Frezier thought the smallest of these bottles were designed expressly to produce music ; if so, they are (we suppose) the only water instru ments extant.b The large earthen vessels used by the water carriers of Mexico, strict- ly resemble the gourd. Saturday Mag. vol. vi, 128. The " gurgulets" of the Persians, Hindoos, -and Egyptians of the present day, are rather larger, but of the same shape as the Florence flask, i. e. of the gourd. They are formed " of a porous earth, and are so called, from the sound made when water is poured out of them to be drunk, as » A Voyage to the South Sea, &c. in 1712, '13, '14. Lon. 1717. 274. b The following extract from a late newspaper affords additional information respect- ing these vessels in remote ages: 11 The Peruvian Pompeii. — We recently gave a description of an ancient subterranean city, destroyed by an earthquake, or some other sudden convulsion of nature, lately discovered near the port of Guarmey, in Truxillo, on the coast of Peru. The only ac- count of it which appears to have as yet been received in the United States, was brought by Capt. Ray of Nantucket, who a few weeks since returned from the South Seas in the ship Logan, and who, having visited the spot whilst the inhabitants of Guarmey were excavating the buried streets and buildings, obtained several interesting relics of its ancient but unknown population. The Portland Orion describes some of these, of which we did not find any mention in the Nantucket Inquirer from whom we derived our former information, and they are of a character which may possibly afford the dili- gent antiquary some clue to the age and origin of the people to whom they belonged. They are two grotesquely shaped earthen vessels, somewhat rudely yet ingeniously constructed, of a species of clay, colored or burnt nearly black. One of these, which is capable of holding about a pint, is shaped somewhat like a quail, with a spout two inches long, rising from the centre of the back, from which also a handle extends to the side. The other is a double vessel, connected at the centre, and also at the top, by a handle reaching from the spout or nozzle of one vessel to the upper part of the other — the lat- ter not being perforated but wrought into the likeness of a very unprepossessing hu- man countenance. At the back of what may be considered the head of this face, is a small hole, so contrived that on blowing into the mouth of the vessel a shrill note is produced, similar to that of a boatswain's call. From the activity with which the exca- vations were proceeding when Capt. Ray left the place, it may be hoped that discover- ies will be made which will greatly add to the antiquarian history of this continent." 3 18 Primitive Boilers. [Book I. the Indians do without touching it with their lips."* The bottles of the Negroes of Africa, are made of woven grass of the same shape. Earth- en gnrgulets for cooling liquids are made in this city. The gourd was not merely imitated by primitive potters and braziers, but when the arts were at their zenith, its figure predominated in the most elaborate of vases. The preceding remarks show, that the forms of many of our ordinary vessels of capacity, did not originate in caprice or by chance, but are derived from nature ; that the pattern which man has co- pied, was furnished him by his Maker ; and that with all his ingenuity, he has never been able to supersede it. PERSIUS in his third Satire, al- ludes to the transition from primitive earthenware and brazen vessels to those which luxury had introduced in his days : Now gold hath banished Numa's simple vase, And the plain brass of Saturn's frugal days. — Now do we see to precious goblets turn, The Tuscan pitcher, and the vestal uru. Drummond, 105. VESSELS FOR HEATING WATER. Although not strictly connected with the subject, we may observe that the gourd is probably the original vessel for HEATING water, Booking, fyc. In these and other applications, the neck is sometimes used as a handle, and an opening made into the body by removing a portion of it, (see illustration No. 4,) its exterior being kept moistened by water while on the fire, as still practised by some people, while others apply a coating of clay to protect it from the effects of flame. In some parts where the calabash or gourd is not cultivated, cocoa shells are used in the same manner. KOTZEBUE found the Radack Islanders thus heating liquids. " On my return. I fell in with a company sitting round a fire and boiling something in cocoa shells. "b A primitive Su- matran vessel fof boiling rice is the bamboo, which is still used — by the time the rice is dressed, the vessel is nearly destroyed by the fire.c When in process of time, vessels for heating water were formed wholly of clay, they were fashioned after the gourd. Figures of ancient saucepans both of metal and fictile ware, greatly resemble it, and so do some of those of modern times. The common earthenware PIPKIN is an example. • This useful implement has come down from very remote ages, and apparently with slight alteration in its figure. (See figure in No. 4.) In some parts of Europe, its form approaches still nearer to that of the gourd. It is used over all the eastern world. Dampier observed in Tonquin, " women sitting in the streets with a pipkin, over a small fire full of chau," or tea, which mey thus prepared and sold.d Fosbroke enumerating the house- hold utensils represented in Egyptian sculptures, remarks, " we meet too with vessels of No. 4. Gourd, Cauldron, and Pipkin. ^ne precise form of modern sauce- pans."e An interesting circum- stance is recorded in Roman history in connection with one of these vessels. Marcus Curius Dentatus, who was three times Consul, was as a Fryer's India and Persia, p. 47. b Voyage Discov. ii, 109, and iii, 152, and Fryer's India, 7. l' Marsden's Sumatra, 60. << Dampier's Voyage. Lon. 1705. ii, 31 • For. Topog. 83. Chap. 3.] Iron and Brasen Cauldrons. 19 remarkable for his frugality as his patriotism. During the time that he swayed the destinies of his country, the ambassadors of the Samnites vi- sited him at his cottage, and found him boiling vegetables in an earthen pot or pipkin ; they attempted to bribe him with large presents ; but he characteristically replied, " I prefer my earthen pots to all your vessels of gold and of silver." To this Juvenal alludes, when contrasting the frugality of former times with the luxury of his contemporaries : When with the herbs* he gathered, CURIUS stood And seethed his pottage o'er the flaming wood ; That simple mess, an old Dictator's treat, The highway laborer now would scorn to eat. Sat. xi, 105. The common cast iron bellied kettle or CAULDRON, furnishes another proof of the forms of culinary vessels having undergone little or no change, while passing through so many ages : its shape is precisely the same as that of the SITULA or POT, sculptured on the obelisk of Heliopolis, (See its figure in No. 4, and Dr. Shaw's Travels, 402, 413.) Others with ears and feet, are delineated in the Theban sculptures. In the tomb of Rameses the Third, is a graphic representation of an Egyptian kitchen, showing the processes of slaying the animals — cutting the joints — pre- paring ingredients for seasoning — lotting the meat — stirring the fire — making and baking bread, &c. &c. The cauldrons of various sizes are similar in shape to ours. Wilkinson's An. Egyp. ii, 351, 383, 385. There is reason to believe that boilers of this form were common to all the na- tions of the ancient world ; that the ' pottage ' by which Jacob defrauded Esau of his birthright ; and the ' savoury meat/ which Rebecca cooked for Isaac, were prepared in them. To one of these, Job referred ; " out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or cauldron." xli, 20. And Elisha also, when he said to his servant. " Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets." 2 Kings, iv, 38. It is often mentioned by Homer, in whose writings it forms a conspicuous object: And soon the flames encompassing around its ample belly. Iliad, xviii, 427. Cowper Such were the boilers of Argos, (respecting which arose the saying, " a cook from Elis — a cauldron from Argos — tapestry from Corinth, &c.) and of the Spartans, in which they prepared their famous ' black broth.' A figure of a Roman cauldron, in which the priests boiled their portion of the sacrifice, is given by Misson, in the first volume of his Travels, plate 4. It has a bail, three studs or feet, and is of a spherical shape resembling ours, but ornamented with figures round its sides. The same shaped boilers were common among the Gauls, who probably derived the knowledge of making them from the Phenicians. The art of tinning culinary vessels, which they are said to have invented, (Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxxiv, 17,) was most likely obtained from the same source.5 The Celtiberi are said to have been expert workers of iron. Their " most ancient iron pot," had ears and feet, and was shaped like those of the Egyptians. (See its figure in ' Scottish Gael.' p. 316. The cast iron cauldrons of the Chinese are also examples. These are made very thin \ and what is singular, their mechanics have the art of soldering them when cracked, with portions of the same metal, by means of a blow-pipe and small furnace.0 They are the principal article of furniture in. the dwell- * Plutarch, says they were turnips. b Pliny, b. xii, J, says, the Gauls were first induced to invade Rome, by one of their countrymen, a smith, who had long worked in that city. He carried home, figs, raisins, oil and wine, which " set the teeth of his countrymen watering." Holland's Trans. c " During our short stay this morning in the village of Fan-koun, I had an oppc oppor 20 Cauldrons. [Book. 1 ings of the poor. The kettles of the Chinese says Mr. Bell, (who lodged one day in a cook's house near Pekin,) " are indeed very thin, and made of cast iron, being extremely smooth both within and without." Fuel is scarce and they used bellows to heat them.a These we have no reason to suppose have undergone any change from the remotest times, and they are in all probability of the same form as the celebrated cauldrons of an- tiquity. That those of the Scythians, the ancient Tartars and Chinese, were similar to those of the Greeks, is asserted by Herodotus. " As Scythia is barren of wood, they have the following contrivance to dress the flesh of the victim : having flayed the animal, they strip the flesh from the bones ; and if they have them at hand, they throw it into certain pots made in Scythia, and RESEMBLING THE LESBIAN CAULDRONS, though somewhat larger." Herod, iv, 61. The boilers of the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians, had the same ge- neral form. See plate 31 of Frezier's Voyage to the South Sea, in 1712, '13, '14. As these people had not the use of iron, their vessels were of earthenware, copper and its alloys, silver, and even of gold. In the temple pie at Cusco, " were boyling pots and other vessels of gold." Two enor- mous cauldrons were carried by the conquerors to Spain, " each sufficient wherein to boyle a cow." (Purchas* Pilgrimage, 1061, and 1073.) The negroes of' Africa, made theirs of the same shape. (Generale Histoire, torn, v, Planche 88.) Large cauldrons were common of old ; they arc frequently mentioned by Homer, Herodotus, &c. and in the Bible. Maho- met, in the 34th chapter of the Koran, speaks of large cauldrons be- longing to David. Some of those represented at Thebes, appear suf- ficiently capacious to contain the cooks that attend them. Croesus boiled together a tortoise and a lamb in a large brasen cauldron, which had a cover of the same metal ; hence the reply of the Delphic oracle, to the demand of his ambassadors to be informed what Croesus was at that mo- ment doing : E'en now the odors to my sense that rise A tortoise boiling with a lamb supplies, Where brass below, and brass above it lies. H&rod. i, 47. The question naturally arises — why such uniformity in the figure of this utensil 1 and what has induced people in distant times and countries to make it resemble a. portion of a hollow sphere or spheroid, instead of forming it with plane sides and bottom 1 It is clear there was some con- trolling reason for this — else why should the fanciful Greek and Roman artists, have permitted it to retain its primitive form, while all other house- hold implements, as lamps, vases, drinking vessels, and tripods, &c. were moulded by them into endless shapes Brasen cauldrons we know were highly prized. They were sometimes polished, and their sides richly or- namented, but still their general form was the same as those of more an- cient people. In this respect, both Greeks and Romans left them as they found them. The reason is obvious. When a liquid is heated in a cy- lindrical or other vessel having perpendicular sides, it easily ' boils over ;' but when the sides incline inwards at the top, as in these cauldrons ; it cannot well be thrown out by ebullition alone ; for the heated waves as they tunity of seeing a tinker execute what I believe is unknown in Europe. He mended and soldered frying-pans of cast iron, that were cracked and full of holes, and restored them to their primitive state, so that they became as serviceable as ever. He even took so little pains to effect this, and succeeded so speedily, as to excite my astonishment." Van Braam's Journal of the Dutch embassy to China, 1794 — 6. Lon. 1798. ii, 78, and Chinese Repository, Canton, 1838. iv, 38. » Travels from Petersburgh to diverse parts of Asia. Lon 1764. i, 312. Chap. 3.j Cauldrons. 21 rise are directed towards the centre, where their force is expended against each other. Dyers, brewers, distillers, £c. are well aware of this fact. The remote ancients had therefore observed the inefficiency of straight sided boilers, and applied a simple and beautiful remedy ; one whch was possibly suggested by the previous use of natural vessels, as the gourd, &c. This is no mean proof of their sagacity, and of the early progress of the arts of founding and moulding. From the extreme antiquity of these cauldrons, it is not improbable that their form is similar to the pattern, which Tubal-Cain himself used, and which he taught his pupils to imitate. Similar vessels are found in the workshops of Vulcan. See plate 20, Painting, in D'Agincourt's Storia Dell'Arte, Prato, 1827. Brasen caul- drons were formerly considered suitable presents for kings — rewards of valor — prizes in the games, &c. Of the gifts offered by Agamemnon to to appease the wrath of Achilles, were — Seven tripods, never sullied yet by fire ; Of gold, ten talents ; TWENTY CAULDRONS bright.'1 Iliad, ix, 150. Coioper. They were among the goods which Priam took to redeem the body of Hector. He also took ten talents forth of gold, All weighed ; two splendid tripods ; CAULDRONS four ; And after these a cup of matchless worth. Jb. xxiv. 294. The prizes at the funeral games on the death of Patrocles, were — ' Capacious CAULDRONS, tripods bright.' In the 17th century, they were considered suitable presents to a Persian Emir — " At length he came, and was presented by the caravan-Bashi with a piece of satin, half a piece of scarlet cloth, and two large copper cauldrons." Tavernier's Trav. Lon. 1678. 61. These unobtrusive vessels are now used without exciting a thought of their worth, or of the ingenuity of those to whom we are indebted for them ; although they have contributed infinitely more to the real comfort and innocent gratification of man, than all the splendid VASES that were ever made. These have always had their admirers and historians. Vo- lumes embellished with costly illustrations, have been written on their forms, materials, ages and authors ; but no modern Hamilton, has entered the kitchen to record and illustrate the origin, improvement, modifications and various uses of the cauldron. This vessel, like a despised but ne- cessary attendant, has been the inseparable companion of man in his pro- gress from barbarism to refinement, and has administered to his necessi- ties at every stage : yet it has ever been disregarded, while literary cuisi- niers have expatiated in numerous treatises on the virtues of meats pre- pared in it. Endless are the essays on sauces, but the history of the more useful sauce-pan is yet to be written. An account of this vessel and of the cauldron, would place in a very novel and instructive light, the do- mestic manners of the world ; and an examination of the various modes of heating the latter, would bring to view many excellent devices for economizing fuel." VASES used by oriental women to convey water from public wells and fountains for domestic purposes, are often referred to, by sacred and pro- fane authors. Figure No. 5, represents a female of Hindostan, bearing a See the -ancient Peruvian furnace in Frezier's Voyage to the South Seas, by which three cauldrons were heated by a very small pot of lama's dung, or of the plant who ; whicn were used for want of other fuel. Water Pots. [Book 1. one, the shape of which, closely resembles tho gourd with the neck removed. This is their ge- neral form throughout the east. The Hindoos, have them of copper or brass, as well as of earth- enware, but they are all shaped alike. This is not a little singular, because a deviation from a globular to a cylindrical form, would enable their mechanics to make those of metal at, much less expense. They therefore adhere to the pri- mitive model, because of its superiority over others, or from that adhesion to ancient customs which forms so prominent a feature in Asiatic character. In the early ages it was the univer- sal custom for young women to draw water. The daughters of princes and chief men, were not exempt from it. Isis and Osiris are sometimes represented with wa- ter vessels on their heads. There are several interesting examples in the Old Testament. Homer, as might be expected, frequently introduces fe- males thus occupied. When Nestor entertained Telemachus, he bade The handmaids for the feast prepare, The seats to range, the fragrant wood to bring, And limpid waters from the living spring. Odys. iii, 544. Pope. And again at Ithaca ; With duteous haste a bevy fair, Of twenty virgins to the spring repair : * * * * * * Soon from the fount, with each a brimming urn, (Eumseus in their train) the maids return. Ib. xx, 193 and 202. Fountains and wells became the ordinary places of assembly for young people — especially, " at the time of the evening, the time that women go out to draw water." Gen. xxiv, 11. Several of the Patriarchs first be- held their future wives on these occasions ; and were doubtless as much captivated by their industry and benevolent dispositions in relieving the wants of strangers and travelers, as by their personal charms. It was Beside a chrystal spring — that Ulysses met the daughter of Antiphates. Travelers have often no- ticed the singular tact with which Asiatic women balance several of these water pots on their heads without once touching them with their hands. " The finest dames of the Gentoos disdained not to carry water on their heads, with sometimes two or three earthen pots over one another, for house- hold service ; the like do all the women of the Gentiles." Fryer's Trav. 117. At one of their religious festivals, Hindoo women, "have a custom of dancing with several pots of water on their heads, placed one above another." Sonnerat, i, 150. A very pleasing instance of female dexterity in carrying water, is re- corded by Herodotus, v, 12. As^ Darius, king of Persia, was sitting pub- licly in one of the streets of Sardis, he observed a young woman of great elegance and beauty, bearing a vessel on her head, leading a horse by a bridle fastened round her arm, and at the same time spinning some thread. Darius viewed her as she passed, with attentive curiosity, observing that her employments were not those of a Persian, Lydian, nor indeed of any Asiatic female ; prompted by what he had seen, he sent some of his at- tendants to observe what she did with the horse. They accordingly fol- lowed her — When she came to the river, she s:ave the horse some water Chap. 3.] Canopus. 23 and then filled her pitcher : having done this, she returned by the way she came, with the pitcher of water on her head, the horse fastened by a bridle to her arm, and as before, employed in spinning. Industrious labor is an ornament to every young woman — indeed nei- ther the symmetry of her person, nor the vigor of her mind, can be per- fectly developed without it. The fine forms and glowing health of the women of old, were chiefly owing to their temperate modes 'of living, their industrious habits, and the exercise they took in the open air. A circumstance recorded in the history of the Egyptians, accounts for the peculiar form of one of their favorite ves- sels, the Canopus ; the annexed figure of which, is taken from the ' History of the ancient people of Italy/ plate 27. It was named after one of their deities, who became fa- mous on account of a victory which he obtained over the Chaldean deity, FIRE; — the story of which exhibits no small degree of ingenuity in a priest, and it affords a fair specimen of the miracles by which people were de- luded in remote times. The Chaldeans boasted, as they justly might, of the unlimited power of their god, and No. 6. A Canopus. they carried him about to combat with those of other provinces, all which he easily overcame and destroyed, for none of their images were able to resist the force of fire ! — At length a shrewd priest of Canopus, devised this artifice and challenged the Chal- deans to a trial. He took an earthen jar, in the bottom and sides of which he drilled a great number of small holes ; — these he stopt up with wax, and then filled the jar with water : he secured the head of an old image upon it, and having painted and sufficiently disguised it, brought it forth as the god Canopus ! In the conflict with the Chaldean Deity the wax was soon melted by the latter, when the water rushed out of the holes, and quickly extinguished the flames. Univ. Hist, i, 206. In me- mory of this victory, vessels resembling the figure of the god used on this occasion became common. Dr. Shaw gives the figure of one which he brought with him from Egypt. Trav. 425. See Montfaucon, torn, ii, liv. i, cap. 18. A figure of one throwing out water from numerous holes on every side is also given. Tom. ii, liv. iii. A somewhat similar case of superstition in the middle ages, is quoted by Bayle from Baronius ; being a trial of the virtue in the bones of two saints ; or rather a contest of priestly skill. St. Martin's relics being carried over all France came to Auxerre, and were deposited in the church of St. Germain, where they wrought several miracles. The priests of the latter considered him as great a saint as the former ; they therefore demanded one half of the receipts, " which were considerable;" but Martin's priests contended that it was his relics that performed all the miracles, and therefore all the gifts belonged to them. To prove this, they proposed that a sick person should be put between the shrines of the saints, to ascertain which performed the cure. They therefore laid a leper between them, and he was healed on that side which was next to St. Martin's bones, and not on the other ! the sick man then very naturally turned his other side, and was instantly healed on that also ! Cardinal Baronius in commenting on this result, seriously observes, that St. Germain was « as great a saint as St. Martin, but that as the latter had done him the favor of a visit, he suspended the influence he had with God, to do his guest the greatest honor ! The custom of having patron saints or gods was universal among the ancient heathen ; and the same sys- tem was carried by half pagan Christians of the dark ages to an incredible ^4 Wells. [Book I. extent. Ecclesiastics peddled the country, like itinerant jugglers, with sacks of bones and other relics from the charnel house — the pretended virtues of which, they sold to the deluded multitude as in the above instance. CHAPTER IV. ON WELLS— Water one of the first objects of ancient husbandmen— Lot— Wells before the deluge- Digging them through rock subsequent to the use of metals — Art of digging them carried to great per- fection by the Asiatics— Modern methods of making them in loose soils derived from the East— Wells often the nuclei of cities — Private wells common of old — Public wells infested by Banditti — Wells nu- merous in Greece — Introduced there by Danaus — Facts connected with them in the inythologic ages — Persian ambassadors to Athens and Lacedemon thrown into wells— Pheniciau, Carthagenian and Roman wells extant — Caesar and Pompey's knowledge of making wells enabled them to conquer — City of Pompeii discovered by digging a well — Wells in China, Persia, Palestine, India, and Turkey — Cisterns of Solomon— Sufferings of travelers from thirst— Affecting account from Leo Africanus— Mr. Bruce iu Abyssinia — Dr. Ryers in Gombroon — Hindoos praying for water — Caravan of 2000 persons and 1800 camels perished in the African desert — Crusaders. As the human family multiplied, its members necessarily kept extend- ing themselves more and more from their first abode ; and in searching for suitable locations the prospect of obtaining water would necessarily ex- ert a controlling influence in their decisions. An example of this, in later times, is given by Moses in the case of Abraham and Lot. The land was too much crowded by their families and flocks, " so that they could not dwell together," and when they had concluded to separate, Lot selected the plain of Jordan, because "it was well watered everywhere." Gen. xiii, 10. In the figurative language of the East, "Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan ;" in plain English, he went and carefully examined it. When thus extending themselves, the early in- habitants of the world, would frequently meet with locations every way adapted to their wants with the single exception of water ; circumstances, which necessarily must have excited their ingenuity in devising means to obtain it. At what period of mans' history he first had recourse to wells, we have no account ; nor of the circumstances which led him to penetrate the earth, in search of water. Wells, we have no doubt, are of antediluvian origin, and the knowledge of them, like that of the primitive arts, has been preserved by uninterrupted use from the period of their first dis- covery. At first, they were probably nothing more than shallow cavities dug in moist places ; and their depth occasionally increased, in order to contain the surface water that might drain into them within certain inter- vals of time ; a mode of obtaining it still practised among barbarous peo- ple. The wells of Latakoo, described by Mr. Campbell, in his " Travels in South Africa," were of this description. They were but two feet deep and were emptied every morning. The people of New Holland, the most wretched and ignorant of our species, had similar excavations, at which &atovpi&', when on the coast in 1688, obtained a supply for his ships. He says, "we filled our barrels with water at wells which had been dug by the natives." Burney's Voy. iv, 260. "Wells are also connected with the superstitions of the New Zealanders ; and the Radack Islanders, when discovered by Kotzebue, had pits or square wells, which they had Chap. 4.] Public Wells. 25 dug for water. Kotzebue's Voy. ii, 28, 66, and iii, 145, 223. The fresh water which Columbus found in the huts belonging to the Indians of Cuba, was probably obtained from similar wells ; but which the Span- iards, who found none but salt water, were unable to discover. Personal Nar. of Colum. 67. Boston, 1827. These simple excavations would naturally be multiplied and their dimensions enlarged as far as the limited means of man, in the early ages, would permit, and his increasing wants require. But when the discovery of the metals took place, (in the seventh generation from the first pair, ac- cording to both Moses and Sanchoniathon,) the deptJi, of wells would no longer be arrested by rocks, nor their construction limited to locations where these did not occur. From very ancient wells which still remain, it is certain, that at a time long anterior to the commencement of history, the knowledge of procuring water by means of them, was well under- stood, perhaps, equally so as at present. On this supposition only, can we reconcile the selection of locations for them composed wholly of rock. Some of the oldest wells known are dug entirely through that material, and to a prodigious depth. Man's ingenuity was, perhaps, first exercised in procuring water ; and it is not improbable, that the art of constructing wells was more rapidly carried to perfection than any other. The physical character of central Asia, its climate, universal deficiency of water, its swarms of in- habitants, and their pastoral, and agricultural pursuits, would necessarily contribute to this result. The Abbe Fleury, in his " Manners of the An- cient Israelites," justly observes, " their numerous herds of cattle necessa- rily induced them to set a very high value on their wells and cisterns ; and more especially as they occupied a country where there was no river but Jordan, and where rain seldom fell." Chap. iii. In no other part of the world, even in modern times, has more science been evinced, or mechani- cal skill displayed in penetrating the earth, than is exhibited in sonie of the ancient wells of the east ; and it is to their authors, that WE are indebted for the only known method of sinking wells of great depth, through loose soils and quicksands, viz : by first constructing a curb, (of stone, brick, &c.) which settles as the excavation is deepened, and thereby resists the pressure of the surrounding soil. Wells are mentioned by Moses, as in common use among the ancient Canaanites ; some of which at that remote age adjoined roads, for the be- nefit of travelers and the public at large. Indeed, all people who have had recourse to wells, have consecrated some of them to the convenience of strangers and travelers. The first wells were probably all of this descrip- tion. Most of those mentioned in history were certainly such. At one of these, Hagar rested and refreshed herself, when she fled from the ilJ treat- ment of Sarah. And it was "by the way" of this well, that Isaac was going when he first met with Rebecca. And we learn from Gen. xxv, 11, that he subsequently took up his abode near it ; a custom by which wells frequently became nuclei of ancient cities. Jacob's well is an example, if really dug by him. When that patriarch and his family drank of its waters, few dwellings were near it; (Gren. xxiii, 19 ;) but, before the time of Alexander, these had so far increased, as with the ancient Shalem, to form the capital city of Samaria. And 600 years before Alexander's con- quest of Judea, Jeroboam when he governed the ten tribes had a palace in the vicinity of this well. Josephus, Antiq. viii, 3. " Tadmor in the wil- derness," or Palmyra, one of the most splendid cities of the old world, was built by Solomon (2 Chron. viii, 4,) in the Syrian desert, and its loca- tion determined according to Josephus, (Antiq. viii, 6,) " because at that 4 26 Private Wells. [Book I, place only there are springs and pits (wells) of water." Pliny makes the same remark, and speaks of its "abundance of water." Nat. His. v, 25. Bonnini, in his ' Syracuse Antichi,' remarks that most of the Sicilian cities took their names from the fountains they were near, or the rivers they bordered upon. The deep well in the Cumean Sybil's cave, gave its name Liilybe, both to the cape and town near it. Breval's Remarks on Europe, 19 and 39. The same may be said of other European cities. BATH in Eng- land derived its name from the springs near it. It was named Caer-Badon, or the place of baths, before the Roman invasion. The city of WELLS, also, was named after the wells of water near it, especially the one now known as St. Andrew's Well. Lewis's Topographical Dictionary. Many others might be named. Private wells were, however, very common in ancient times. Abraham and Isaac constructed several for the use of their own families and flocks. David's spies were secreted in the well of a private house. " Water out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine own well," is the language of Proverbs, v, 15 ; and in the 2d Book of Kings, xviii, 31, we read of " every one drinking water out his of own cistern ;" or pit as it is in the margin ; a term often used by eastern writers, synonymously with well. In the plans of private houses at Karnac, it appears that the ancient Egyptians arranged their houses and court yards (Grande Description, torn, iii, Planche xvi,) in a manner very similar to those of the Romans, AS seen at Pompeii, and like these, each house was generally furnished with a round well and an oblong cistern. Lardner's Arts of the Greeks and Romans, i, 44. " If I knew a man incurably thankless," says Seneca, " I would yet be so kind as to put him on his way, to let him light a can- dle at mine, or draw water at my well." Seneca on Benefits; L'Estrange's Trans. The story of Apono, an Italian philosopher, and reputed magi- cian, of the 13th century, indicates that almost every house had a well. He, however, had not one, or it was dry, and his neighbor having refused to let his maid draw water from his well, Apono, it was said, by his magic caused it through revenge to be carried off by devils. Bayte. Numerous wells of extreme antiquity are still to be seen in Egypt. Van Sleb notices several. Besides those in some of the pyramids, there are others which are probably as old as those structures. Mr. Wilkinson men- tions one near the pyramids of Geezer. An. Egyp. vol. iii. Among the ruins of Nineveh, a city whose foundations were laid by Ashur, the son of an antediluvian, is a remarkable well, which supplies the peasants of the vicinity with water, and who attribute to it many virtues.a Captain Rich named it Tkisbe's Well. The immediate successors of that Pharaoh who patronized Joseph erected stations to command the wells, (which were previously in use, and probably had been for ages,) at Wadee Jasous, and these same wells still supply the port of Philoteras or J^nnum, on the Red Sea, with water, as they did four thousand years ago.b The building of stations to protect wells was common in ancient times, on account of robbers laying in wait near them. There is an allusion to this in Judges, " They are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water." Chap, v, 11. It was at the public fountains that the Pelasgi attacked the Athenian women. Near the ruins of an Egyptian Temple at Wady El Mecah, is an enclosure, in the centre of which is a well. "All round the well there is a platform or gallery raised six feet. on which a guard of soldiers might walk all round. In the upper part ^Narrative of a residence in Koordistan, and on the site of ancient Nineveh, by C. J. Rich, Lon. 1836. Vol. ii. 26 and 34. bAn. Egyp. Vol i, 46. Chap. 4.] Grecian Wells. 27 of the wall are holes for discharging arrows." Fosbrokes' For. Top. 322. The custom of guarding the roads, especially in the vicinity of tanks and wells, is still common. Fryer in his Travels in India, noticed it. " We found them in arms, not suffering their women to stir out of the town un- guarded, to fetch water." Page 126, 222. In Shaw's Travels in Mauri- tania, he noticed a beautiful rill of water, which flowed into a basin of Roman workmanship, named 'Shrub we Krub,' i. e. "drink and be off," on account of the danger of meeting assassins in its vicinity. Sandys speaks of the " wells of fear." Travels, p. 140. In ancient Greece, wells were very numerous. The inhabitants of Attica \vere supplied with water principally from them. Vitruvius re- marks, that the other water which they had, was of bad quality. B. viii, Chap. 3. Plutarch has preserved some of the laws of Solon respecting wells. By these it was enacted that all persons who lived within four furlongs of a public well, had liberty to use it; but when the distance was greater, they were to dig one for themselves ; and they were requir- ed to dig at least six feet from their neighbor's ground. Life of Solon. According to Pliny, Danaus sunk the first wells in Greece. Nat. His. vii, 56. Plutarch, in his life of Cimon, says the Athenians taught the rest of the Greeks " to sow bread corn, to avail themselves of the use of wells, and of the benefit of fire " From the connection in which wells are here mentioned, it is evident, that in the opinion of the ancient Greeks, they were among the first of man's inventions ; and hence the antiquity of de- vices to raise water from them. In the mythologic ages, the labor of rais- ing water out of deep wells was imposed as a punishment on the daugh- ters of Danaus, for the murder of their husbands. The daughters of Phae- don (who was put to death by the thirty tyrants) threw themselves into a well, preferring death to dishonor. The body of Chrysippus, son of Pelops, was disposed of in the same way, after being murdered by his brothers, or his step-mother. When Darius sent two heralds to demand earth and water of the Athenians, (the giving of which was an acknow- ledgment of subjection,) they threw one of them into a ditch, and the other into a WELL, telling them in mockery to take what they came for. Plutarch. And Herodotus informs us, that the Lacedemonians treated the Persian ambassadors, who were sent to them on the same errand, in pre cisely the same manner. Herod, b. viii. 133. These brutal acts led to the invasion of Greece by Xerxes. Shortly after Alexander's death, Perdiccas and Roxana murdered Statira and her sisters, and had their bodies thrown into a well. Hence, wells were probably common in Babylon as well as in Nineveh ; for this was most likely a private one ; a public one would scarcely have been select- ed, where concealment was required. Sir R. K. Porter, in his Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, and ancient Babylon, Vol. i. 698, speaks of the remains of an ancient and " amazing deep well," near Shiraz. Remains of Phenician and Carthagenian wells are still to be seen. Near the ancient Barca, Delia Cella discovered " wells of great depth, some of which still afford most excellent water."3- At Arar, are others, some of which are excavated through rocks of sandstone. At Arzew, the ancient Arsenaria, Dr. Shaw observed a number of wells, " which from the masonry appear to be as old as the city."b The celebrated fountain of the sun of the an- cients, near the temple of Jupiter Ammon, according to Belzoni, is a WELL sixty feet deep, and eight feet square. (In this case and * RussePs Barbary States. b Trav. p. 29. 28 Discovery of Herculaneum, [Book I. numerous others, the terms " well" and " fountain," are synonymous. " The following is among the first observations of Sir William Gel], after landing on the Troad ; " we past many wells on the road, a proof that the country was once more populous than at present.* The inhabitants of Ithaca, the birth place of Ulysses and Telemachus, and the scene of some of the principal events recorded in the poetry of Homer, still draw their supplies of water, as in former times, from well%.b And as in other places, a tower was anciently erected to guard one of these wells, and protect the inhabitants while drawing water from it.c The ancient Egyptians irrigated the borders of the desert above the reach of the inundations of the Wile, from WELLS, which they dug for that purpose/1 The Chinese also use wells to water their land. As it regards the antiquity and importance of wells, it has been observed that the earliest account on record of the purchase of land, 23 Gen. was subsequent to that of a well, Gen. xxi, 30. Roman wells are found in every country which that people conquered. Their armies had constant recourse to them, when other sources of water failed, or were cut off by their enemies. Paulus Emilius, Pompey, and Cse- sar, often preserved their troops from destructionby having recourse to them. This was strikingly illustrated by Csesar when besieged in Alexandria ; the water in the cisterns having been spoiled by the Egyptians. It was Pom- pey's superior knowledge in thus obtaining water, which enabled him to overthrow Mithridates, by retaining possession of an important post, which the latter abandoned for want of water. Thus the destinies of these manslayers and their armies, frequently depended on the wells which they made. The city of Rome, previous to the time of Appius Claudius Caecus, who first conveyed water to it by an aqueduct, A. U. C. 411, was supplied chiefly from fountains and wells, several of which are preserve'd to this day. (At Chartres in France, a Roman well is still known as the ' Saints' Well,' on account of martyrs drowned in it by the Romans.) In noticing the wells of ancient Italy, we may refer to a circumstance, which although trivial in itself, led to the most surprising discovery that had ever taken place on this globe, and one which in the interest it has excited is unexampled. In the early part of the eighteenth century, 1711, an Italian peasant while digging a WELL near his cottage, found some fragments of colored marble. These attracting attention, led to further ex- cavation, when a statue of Hercules was disinterred, and shortly after- wards a mutilated one of Cleopatra. These specimens of ancient art, were found at a considerable depth below the surface, and in a place which subsequently proved to be a temple situated in the centre of the ancient city of Herculaneum ! This city was overwhelmed with ashes and lava, during an eruption of Vesuvius, A. D. 79, being the same in which the elder Pliny perished, who was suffocated with sulphurous va- pors, like Lot's wife in a similar calamity. Herculaneum therefore had been buried 1630 years ! and while every memorial of it was lost, and even the site^ unknown, it was thus suddenly, by a resurrection then unparalleled in the annals of the world, brought again to light ; a.nd streets, temples, houses, statues, paintings, jewellery, professional imple- ments, kitchen utensils, and other articles connected with ancient domestic life, were to be seen arranged, as when their owners were actively mov- * Top. of Troy, Lon. 1804, p. 5. b Ed. Encyc. Art. Ithaca. c Lard. Arts of the Greeks and Rom. Vcd. i, 136. d Wilk. Vol. i, 220. Chap. 4.] By Digging a Well. 29 ing among them. Even the skeletons of some of the inhabitants were found ; one, near the threshold of his door, with' a bag of money in his hand, and apparently in the act of escaping. The light which this important discovery reflected upon numerous sub- jects connected with the ancients, has greatly eclipsed all previous sour- ces of information ; and as regards some of the arts of the Romans, the information thus obtained, may be considered almost as full and satisfactory, as if one of their mechanics had risen from the dead and described them. Among the early discoveries made in this city of Hercules, (it having been founded by, or in honor of him, 1250, B. C.) not the least interesting is one of its public wells ; which having been covered by an arch and surrounded by a curb, the ashes were excluded. Phil. Trans, xlvii, 151. This well was found in a high state of preservation — it still con- tains excellent water, and is in the same condition as. when the last fe- males retired from it, bearing vases of its water to their dwellings, and probably on the evening that preceded the calamity, which drove them from it for ever. Forty years after the discovery of Herculaneum, another city over- whelmed at the same time, was " destined to be the partner of its disinter- ment, as well as of its burial." This was Pompeii, the very name of which had been almost forgotten. As it lay at a greater distance from Vesuvius than Herculaneum, the stream of lava never reached it. It was inhumed by showers of ashes, pumice and stones, which formed a bed of variable depth from twelve to twenty feet, and which is easily removed ; whereas the former city was entombed in ashes and lava to the depth of from seventy to a hundred feet. With the exception of the upper stories of the houses, which were either consumed by red hot stones ejected from the volcano, or crushed by the weight of the matter collected on their roofs, we behold in Pompeii a flourishing city nearly in the state in which it existed eighteen centuries ago ! The buildings unaltered by newer fashions ; the paintings undimmed by the leaden touch of time ; household furniture left in the confusion of use ; articles even of intrinsic value abandoned in the harry of escape, yet safe from the robber, or scattered about as they fell from the trembling hand which could not stoop or pause for the most valuable possessions ; and in some instances the bones of the inhabitants, bearing sad testimony to the suddenness and completeness of the calamity which overwhelmed them. Pompeii, i, 5. Lib. Entertaining Knowledge. In the prison, skeletons of unfortunate men were discov- ered, their leg bones being enclosed in shackles, and are so preserved in the museum at Portici. I noticed, says M. Simond, a striking memorial of this mighty eruption, in the Forum opposite to the temple of Jupiter; a new altar of white marble exquisitely beautiful, and apparently just out of the hands of the sculptor, had been erected there ; an enclosure was building all around ; the mortar just dashed against the side of the wall, was but half spread out ; you saw the long sliding stroke of the trowel about to return and obliterate its own track — but it never did return ; the hand of the work- man was suddenly arrested ; and, after the lapse of 1800 years, the whole looks so fresh, that you would almost swear the mason was only gone to his dinner, and about to come back immediately to finish his work ! We can scarcely conceive it possible for an event connected with the arts of former ages, ever to happen in future times, equal in interest to the re- surrection of these Roman towns, unless it be the reappearance of the Phenician cities of the plain. From the facility of removing the materials at Pompeii, much greater ;K) Wells in Asia. [Book I. advances have been made in uncovering the buildings and clearing the streets, than will probably ever be accomplished in Herculaneum. As miffht have been expected, several wells have been found, besides rain- water cisterns and fountains in great numbers. The latter were so com- mon, that scarcely a street has been found without one ; and every house was provided with one or more of the former. During the excavations immediately previous to the publication of Sir Wm. Gell's splendid work, ' Pompeiana,' in 1832, a very fine well was discovered near the gate of the Pantheon, 116 feet in depth and contain ing 15 feet of water !a That wells were numerous in Asia and the east generally, we can readily believe, when we learn that some of the most fertile districts, could neither be cultivated nor inhabited without them. Not less than fifty thousand wells were counted in one district of Hindostan, when taken possession of by the British; several of which are of very high antiquity. In China, wells are numerous, and often of large dimensions, and even lined with marble. In Pekin they are very common, some of the deepest wells of the world are in this country. M. Arago, (in his Essay on Arte- sian Wells,) observes that the Chinese have sunk them to the enormous depth of eighteen hundred feet ! " Dig a well before you are thirsty," is one of their ancient proverbs. The scarcity of water over all Persia has been noticed by every traveler in that country. In general the inhabi- tants depend entirely on wells, the water of which is commonly bad. Fryer, xxxv, 67. To provide water for the thirsty has always been esteemed in the east, one of the most excellent of moral duties, hence benevolent princes and rich men, have, from the remotest ages, consecrated a portion of their wealth to the construction of wells, tanks, fountains, &c. for public use. It is re- corded as one of the glories of Uzziah's resign, that he "digged many wells." Over all Persia, there are numerous cisterns built for public use by the rich. Fryer, 225. "Another work of charity among the Hindoos" observes Mr. Ward, "is the digging of pools, to supply the thirsty traveler with water. The cutting of these, and building flights of steps, in order to descend into them, is in many cases very expensive; 4,000 rupees, (2,000 dollars,) are frequently expended on one." At the ceremony of setting it apart for public use, a Brahmin, in the name of the donor, exclaims, " I offer this pond of water to quench the thirst of mankind," after which the owner cannot appropriate it to his own use. Hist. Hindoos, 374. Ferose, one of the monarchs of India, in the fourteenth century, " built fifty sluices" (to irrigate the land,) and " one hundred and fifty wells." One of the objects, which the fakirs, or mendicant philosophers of India, have frequently in view, in collecting alms, is to ' dig a well,' and thereby atone for some particular sin. Other devotees stand in the roads with vessels of water, and give drink to thirsty travelers from the same motives. Among the supposed causes of Job's affliction, adduced by Eliphaz, was, " thou hast not given water to the weary to drink," xxii, 7 : a most hor- rible accusation in such a country as Syria, and one which that righteous man denied with the awful imprecation, " then let mine arm fall from my ihoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone." xxxi, 22. " The sun was setting," says Mr. Emerson, "as we descended the last chain, and with the departure of daylight, our tortures commenced, as it was too dark to see any of the fountains charitably erected by the Turks near the road."b Large legacies are sometimes left by pious Turks for the » Pompeiana, Preface. a Letters from the Egean, Let. 5. Chap. 4.] Sufferings of Travelers. 31 erection of fountains, who believe they can do no act more acceptable to God.a This mode of expending their wealth, at the same time that it conferred real and lasting benefits on the public, was the surest way of transmitting to posterity the names of the donors. The pools of Solomon, might have preserved his name from oblivion had nothing else respecting him been known. These noble structures, in a land where every other work of art has been hurried to destruction, remain almost as perfect as when they were constructed, and Jerusalem is still supplied with water from them, by an earthen pi,pe about ten inches in diameter. " These reser- voirs are really worthy of Solomon ; I had formed no conception of their magnificence ; they are three in number, the smallest between four, and five hundred feet in length." The waters are discharged from one into another, and conveyed from the lowest to the city. " I descended into the third and largest ; it is lined with plaister like the Indian chunan, and hanging terraces run all round it." Lindsay's Trav. Let. 9. According to the moral doctrines of the Chinese, "to repair a road, make a bridge, or dig a well," will atone for many sins. Davis' China, ii, 89. The Hindoos, says Sonnerat, believe the digging of tanks on the highways, renders the gods propitious to them ; and he adds, " Is not this the best manner of honoring the deity, as it contributes to the natural good of his creatures'?" Vol. i, 94. SUFFERINGS OF TRAVELERS FROM THIRST. The extreme sufferings which orientals have been, and are still called to endure from the want of water, have been noticed by all modern travelers, from Rubriques and Marco Paulo, to Burckhardt and Niebuhr. Wells in some routes, are a hundred miles apart, and are sometimes found empty ; hence travelers have often been obliged to slay their camels for the wa- ter these animals retain in their stomachs. Leo Africanus noticed two marble monuments in his travels ; upon one of which was an epitaph, recording the manner in which those who slept beneath them had met their doom. One was a rich merchant, the other a water carrier, who furnished caravans with water and provisions. On reachiijg this spot, scorched by the sun and their entrails tortured by the most excruciating thirst; there remained but a small quantity of water between them. The rich man, whose thirst now made him regard his gold as dirt, purchased a single cup of it for ten thousand ducats ; but that which possibly might have been sufficient to save the life of one of them, being divided be- tween both, served only to prolong their sufferings for a moment, and they both sunk into that sleep from which there is no waking upon earth. Lives of Travelers, by St. John. Mr. Bruce, when in Abyssinia, obtained water from the stomachs of camels, which his companions slew for that purpose. Sometimes the mouths and tongues of travelers, from want of this precious liquid, be- come dry and hard like those of parrots ; but these are not the only people who suffer from thirst. During the long continuance of a drought which prevailed over all Judea in Ahab's reign, every class of people suffered. 1 Kings, xvii and xviii. And such droughts are not uncom- mon. " The poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst," (Isa. xli, 17,) in modern times as when the pro- phet wrote, and not the poor alone, for " the honorable men are famish- ed," and, as well as the multitude, are "dried up with thirst." Isa. v, 13. *Com. Porter's Letters from Constantinople, i, 101. 32 Crusaders. [Book 1 Mechanics in cities were not exempt. " The smith with the tongs, both worketh in the coals and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with jhe strength of his arms, is hungry and his strength faileth, he drinketk no water and is faint." Isa. xliv, 12. Dr. Ryers, who lived in the city of Gombroon, on the Persian Gulf, when describing the heat of the climate and the deficiency and bad quality of the water, observes that the heat made " the mountains gape, the rocks cleft in sunder, the waters stagnate, to which the birds with hanging wings repair to quench their thirst ; for want of which the herds do low, the camels cry, the barren earth opens wide for drink ; and all things ap- pear calamitous for want of kindly moisture ; in lieu of which hot blasts of wind and showers of sand infest the purer air, and drive not only us, but birds and beasts to seek remote dwellings, or else to perish here ;" and after removing to a village some miles distant, " for the sake of water," by a metaphor, that will appear to some persons as bordering on blas- phemy, he says, " it was as welcome to our parched throats, as a drop of that cool liquid, to the importunate Dives" Fryer, p. 418. Under similar circumstances, the Hindoos, night and day run through the streets, carry- ing boards with earth on their heads, and loudly repeating after the Brah- mins, a prayer, signifying " God give us water." Even in Greece and Rome, where water was in comparative abundance, agricultural laborers considered the Frog an object of envy, inasmuch as it had always enough to drink in the most sultry weather. Lard. Arts Greeks and Rom. Vol. ii, 20. The ignorant and clamorous Israelites, enraged with thirst, abused Moses, and were ready to stone him, because they had no water. One of the most appalling facts that is recorded of suffering from thirst occurred in 1805. A caravan proceeding from Timboctoo to Talifet, was disappointed in not finding water at the usual watering places ; when, horrible to relate, all the persons belonging to it, two thousand in number, besides eighteen hundred camels, perished by thirst/ Occurrences like this, account for the vast quantities of human and other bones, which are found heaped together in various parts of the desert. Wonders of the World, p. 246. While the crusaders besieged Jerusalem, great numbers perished of «thirst, for the Turks had filled the wells in the vicinity. Me- morials of their sufferings may yet be found in the heraldic bearings of their descendants. The charge of a foraging party 'for water/ we are told, " was an office of distinction;" hence, some of the commanders on these occa- sions, subsequently adopted water buckets in their coats of arms, as em- blems of their labors in Palestine. ' Water Bougettes,' formed part of the arms of Sir Humphrey Bouchier, who was slain at the battle of Bar- net, in 1471. Moules' Ant. of Westminster Abbey. Chap. 5.] Worship of WeHs. 33 CHAPTER V. Subject of WELLS continued — Wells worshipped — River Ganges — Sacred well at Benares— OtfAis •*• ken at Wells — Tradition of the Rabbins-Altars erected near them — Invoked-Ceremonies with refwd w water in Egypt, Greece, Peru, Mexico, Rome, and Judea — Temples erected over wells — The fountain of Apollo— Well Zem Zem— Prophet Joel — Temple of Isis — Mahommedan Mosques — Hindoo templ« — Woden's well — Wells in Chinese temples — Pliny — Celts —Gauls — Modern superstitious with regafti to water and wells — Hindoos — Algerines— Nineveh — Greeks — Tombs of saints near wells — Supersti- tiona of the Persians — Anglo Saxons— Hindoos — Scotch — English — St. Genevieve's well — St. Wini- fred's well — House and well « warming.' In the early ages water was reverenced as the substance of which all things in the universe were supposed to be made, and the vivifying prin- ciple that animated the whole ; hence, rivers, fountains, and wells, were worshipped and religious feasts and ceremonies instituted in honor of them, or of the spirits which were believed to preside over them. Al- most all nations retain relics of this superstition, while in some it is practi- sed to a lamentable extent. Asia exhibits the humiliating spectacle of millions of her people degraded by it, as in former ages. Shoals of pil- grims are constantly in motion over all Hindoston, on their way to the 4 sacred Ganges ;' their tracks stained with the blood and covered with the bones of thousands that perish on the road. With these people, it is deemed a virtue even to think of this river ; while to bathe in its waters washes away all sin, and to expire on its brink, or be suffocated in it, is the climax of human felicity. The holy WELL in the city of Benares is visited by devotees from all parts of India ; to it they offer rice, &c. as to their idols. From this sacred character of water, it very early became a custom, in order to render obligations inviolable, to take oaths, conclude treaties, make bargains, &c. at wells. We learn that when Jacob was on his way to Egypt, he came to the " well of the oath," and offered sacrifices to God. Josephus, Ant. ii, 7. At the same well, his grandfather Abraham conclu- ded a treaty with Abimelech, which was accompanied with ceremonies and oaths. Gen. xxi. At the celebrated Puteal Libonis, at Rome, oaths were publicly administered every morning; a representation of this well is on the reverse of a medal of Libo. Encyc. Ant. 412. It was believed that the "oaths of the Gods" was also by water. Univer. His. Vol. iv, 17. The Rabbins have a tradition that their kings were always anoint- ed by the side of a fountain. Solomon was carried by order of David to the 'fountain of Gihon,' and there proclaimed king. Joseph. Ant. vii, 14. The ancient Cuthites, says Mr. Bryant, and the Persians after them, had a great veneration for fountains and streams. ALTARS were erected in the vicinity of wells and fountains, and religious ceremonies performed around them. Thus Ulysses : Beside a fountain's sacred brink, we raised Our verdant altars, and the victims blazed. Iliad ii, 368. " Wherever a spring rises, or a river flows," says Seneca, "there we should build altars and offer sacrifices," and a thousand years before Se- neca lived, the author of the 68th Psalm spoke of worshipping God from the " fountains of Israel." The Syracusans held great festivals every 9 34 Religious Customs. [Book I. year at the fountains of Aretnusa, and they sacrificed black bulls to Pluto at the fountain of Cyane. Wells were sometimes dedicated to particular deities, as the oracular fountain mentioned by Pausanias, near the sea at Patra, which still remains nearly as he described it ; and having been re- dedicated to a Christian saint, " is still a sacred WELL." Divination by water, was practised at this well. A mirror was suspended by a thread, having its polished surface upwards, and while floating on the water, presages were drawn from the images reflected. Polynices, in CEdipus Coloneus, swears " by our native fountains and our kindred gods." Antigone, when about to be sacrificed, appeals to the "fountains of Dirce, and the grove of Thebe." Ajax before he slew himself, called on the sun, the soil of Salamis, and "ye fountains and rivers here." Trag. of Sophocles lit. trans. 1837. "At Peneus' fount Aristeus stood and bowed with woe, Breathed his deep murmurs to the nymph below : Georgics L. iv, 365. Cyrene ! thou whom these fair springs revere." The fountain of Aponeus, (now Albano) the birth place of Livy, was an oracular one. That of Pirene at Corinth, was sacred to the muses. Eneas invoked " living fountains" among other " Ethereal Gods." And old Latinus " Sought the shades renowned for prophecy, Which near Albuneas' sulphureous fountain lie." En. vii, 124. Cicero says, the Roman priests and augurs, in their prayers, called on the names of rivers, brooks, and springs. Vessels of water were carried by the Egyptian priests in their sacred processions, to denote the great blessings derived from it, and that it was the beginning of all things. Vitruvius says they were accustomed to place a vase of it in their temples with great devotion, and prostrating themselves on the earth, returned thanks to the divine goodness for its pro- tection. Book viii, Proem. In the celebration of the Eleusinian myste- ries, those who entered the temple, washed their hands in holy water, and on the ninth and last day of the festival, vessels of water were offered with great ceremonies, and accompanied with mystical expressions to the Gods. Those who were initiated were prohibited from ever sitting on the cover of a well. Sojourners among the Greeks carried in the religious processions, small vessels formed in the shape of boats ; and their daugh- ters water pots with umbrellas. Rob. Ant. Greece. Plutarch says, "JisJies were not eaten of old, from reverence of springs." Among the ancient Peruvians, certain Indians were appointed to sacri- fice "to fountains, springs, and rivers." Pur. Pil. 1076. Holy water was placed near the altars of the Mexicans. Ibid, 987. Tlaloc was their God of water; on fulfilling particular vows they bathed in the sacred pond Tezcapan. The water of the fountain Toxpalatl was drank only at the most solemn feasts : no one was allowed to taste it at any other time. Cla- vigero, Lon. 1786, vol. i, 251 and 265. The Fontinalia of the Romans, were religious festivals, held in October, in honor of the Nymphs of wells and fountains ; part of the ceremonies consisted in throwing nosegays into fountains, and decorating the curbs of wells with wreaths of flowers. The Jews had a religious festival in connection with water, the origin of which is not clearly ascertained. It was kept on the last day of the feast of tabernacles, when they drew water with great ceremony from the pool of Siloali and conveyed it to the temple.a It is supposed, the Sa- aUni. Hist, i, 607. Chap. 5.] Relating to Wells. 35 vior alludes to this practice, when on " the last day, that great day of the feast, he stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters." John, vii, 37. One of the five solemn festivals of the people of Pegu, is ' the feast of water,' during which, ' the king, nobles and all the people throw water upon one another.' Ovington's Voy. to Surat. 1689. 597. The superstitious veneration for wells, induced the ancients to erect temples near, and sometimes over them ; as the fountain of Apollo, near the temple of Jupiter Ammon ; the well Zemzem in the temple of Mecca, &c. In accordance with this prevailing custom, we find the prophet Joel speaks of a fountain which should come forth out of the house of the Lord, and water the valley, iii, 18. And when Jeroboam built a temple, that the ten tribes might not be obliged to go to Jerusalem to worship, and there be seduced from him, Josephus tells us, that he built it by the fountains of the lesser Jordan. Antiq. viii, cap. 8. In the temple of Isis, at Pompeii, the ' sacred well' has been found. Pompeii, i, 277, 279. The ancient custom of enclosing wells in religious edifices was adopted by both Christians and Mahommedans. Among the latter it is still con tinued, and it is not altogether abandoned by the former. " This afternoon," says Fryer, speaking of one of the mosques in India, " their sanctum sanctorum was open, the priest entering in barefoot, and prostrating himself on one of the mats spread on the floor, whither I must not have gone, could his authority have kept me out. The walls were white and clean but plain, only the commandments wrote in Arabic at the west end, were hung over a table in an arched place, where the priest ex- pounds, on an ascent of seven steps, railed at top with stone very hand- somely. Underneath are fine cool vaults, and stone stairs to descend to a deep tank" As it was formerly death to a Christian who entered a mosque, we shall add a more recent instance. In 1831, Mr. St. John disguised himself, like Burckhardt, in the costume of a native, and visited the mosques of Cairo. In that of Sultan Hassan, he observes, " ascending a long flight of steps, and passing under a magnificent doorway, we entered the vesti> bule, and proceeded towards the most sacred portion of the edifice, where, on stepping over a small railing, it was necessary to take off our babooshes, or red Turkish shoes. Here we beheld a spacious square court, paved with marble of various colors, fancifully arranged, with a beautiful oc- tagonal marble fountain in the centre." Egypt and Mohammed Ali, ii, 338. It is the same in Persia. Tavern. Trav. Lon. 1678. 29. The temples of India says Sonnerat, have a. sacred tank, deified by the Brahmins The figures of gods are sometimes thrown ' into a tank or well.' Voy. i, 111, 132. In old times, churches were removed from other buildings, and were surrounded with courts, in the centre of which there were fountains, where people washed before going to prayers. Moreri Die. In one of the old churches at Upsal, is an ancient well, that had formerly been famous ' for its miraculous cures.' Woden's well is still shown in the same city. It was in the vicinity of the aid temple of that great northern deity. De la Mortraye's Trav. ii, 262. Van Braam noticed a well in one of the large temples of China. Journ. ii, 224. ' Sacred springs,' are mentioned by Juvenal. 3 Sat. 30. Pliny speaks of fountains- and wells of water as very ' wholesome and proper for the cure of many diseases ;' to which, he says, there is ascribed some divine power, inso- much that thoy give names to sundry gods and goddesses, xxxi, 2. The Celts venerated lakes, rivers, and fountains, into which they threw gold, 36 Superstitions of ilie Anglo Saxons. [Book I. The Britons and Ficts did the same. Scot. Gael, 258. Mezeray, in his History of France, when speaking of the church in the third and fourth centuries, remarks, * Hitherto very few of the French had received the light of the gospel ; they yet adored trees, fountains, serpents, and birds.' i, 4. In the eighth century, the council of Soissons condemned a heretic, who built oratories and set up crosses near fountains, &c. Ib. 113. Ancient superstitions with regard to water are still practised more or less over a great part of the world. At the first new moon in October, the Hindoos hold a great celebration to their Deities. " The next moon, their women flock to the sacred wells." Fryer, 110. Many of the cere- monies performed in old times by women in honor of wells and fountains, are yet practised in some of the Grecian islands. There the females still dance round the wells, the ancient Callichorus, accompanied with songs in honor of Ceres. Dr. Clarke. " I have just returned this morning," (says Mr. Campbell in his Letters from the South, Phila. Ed. 1836, 102,) "from wit- nessing a superstitious ceremony, which, though unwarranted by the Ko- ran, is practised by all Mahometans here, [Algiers] black, brown, and white, nay by the Jews also. It consists in sacrificing the life of some eatable animal to one of the devils who inhabit certain fountains near Al- giers. The victims were fowls, they were dipped in the sacred sea, as Homer calls it, after which the high priest took them to a neighboring fountain, and having waved his knife thrice around the head of an old wo- man, who sat squatting beside it, cut their throats," &c. The custom was probably a common one in ancient Nineveh ; for once a year the peasants assemble and sacrifice a sheep at Thisbe's well, with music and other festivities. The Greeks are so much attached to grottoes and wells, that " there is scarcely one in all Greece and the islands, which is not consecrated to the Virgin, who seems to have succeeded the ancient nymphs in the guardianship of these places.* The supposed sanctity of wells also led to the custom of interring the bodies of saints or holy persons near them ; thus in all parts of Egypt, the tombs of saints are found in the vicinity of those places, " where the wandering dervishes stop to pray, and less pious travelers to quench their thirst." Some, says Fryer, are buried with " their heels upwards, like Diogenes." "Worship of wells, like many other superstitions of Pagan origin, was early incorporated with the ceremonies of the Christian church, and carried to an idolatrous excess. A schism took place in Persia among the Arme- nians, in the tenth century ; one party was accused of ' despising the holy well of V^agarsciebat.' In Europe it was at one time universal. In En- gland, in the reigns of Canute and Edgar, edicts were issued prohibiting well worship. When Hereward the Saxon hero, held the marshes of Ely against the Norman conqueror, he said he heard his hostess conversing with a witch at midnight! he arose silently from his bed, and followed them into the garden, to a ' fountain of water/ and there he ' heard them holding converse with the spirit of the fountain.' From a collection of Anglo Saxon remains, the following example is taken. " If any one ob- serve lots or divinations, or keep his wake, [watch] at any ivells, or at any other created things, except at God's church, let him fast three years ; the first one on bread and water," &c. In a Saxon homily against witch- craft and magic, in the library of the University of Cambridge, it is said, " some men are so blind, that they bring their offerings to immovable rocks, and also to trees and to wells, as witches do teach." bThe Hindoos still wor« •Rich's Nar. of a Residence in Koordistan. ii, 42. b Foreign Quarterly. July, 1838. Chap. 6.] Depth of Wells. 37 ship stones, trees, and "water, and make offerings to them.a In a manu- script written in the early part of the fifteenth century, there is a humor- ous song, in which there is an allusion to this superstition. Tt begins thus : ' The last tynie I the wet woke Sir John caght me with a croke, He made me swere be bel and boke I shuld not tel.' Even so late as the seventeenth century, people in Scotland were in the habit of visiting wells, at which they performed numerous acts of super- stition. Shaw, in his History of the Province of Moray, says that 'heathen customs were much practised among the people,' and among them, he in- stances their ' performing pilgrimages to wells,' and ' building chapels to fountains.'5 At the present time in some parts of England, remains of well worship are preserved, in the custom of performing annual proces- sions to them, decorating them with wreaths and chaplets of flowers, singing of hymns, and even reading a portion of the gospel as part of the ceremonies. These same customs gave rise to the numerous holy wells, which for- merly abounded throughout the old world, and the memory of many of which is still preserved in names of towns. In the church of Nanterre, near Paris, the birth place of Saint Genevieve, is a well, by the water of which, this patroness of the Parisians miraculously restored her blind mother and many others to sight ! Breval's Eu. 307. Saint Winifred's well in Flintshire, Eng. from its sacred character gave name to the town of Holywell. Mr. Pennant says, the custom of visiting this well in pil- grimage, and offering up devotions there, was not in his time entirely laid aside: "in the summer, a few are to be seen in the water, in deep devo- tion up to their chin for hours, sending up their prayers, or performing a number of evolutions round the polygonal well." Even so late as 1804, a Roman catholic bishop of Wolverhampton, took much pains to persuade the world, that an ignorant proselyte of his, named Winifred White was miraculously cured at this well of various chronic diseases ! The custom of * house-warming' is very ancient ; the same ceremonies, were formerly performed on the completion of new well*}. CHAPTER VI. Wells continued: Depth of ancient wells— In Hindostan— Well of Tyre— Carthagenian wells—Wells in Greece, Hercutaneum and Pompeii — Wells .without curbs — Ancient laws to prevent accidents from persons and animals falling into them — Sagacity and revenge of an elephant — Hylas — Archelaus of Macedon — Thracian soldier and a lady at Thebes — Wooden covers — Wells in Judea — Reasons for not placing curbs round wells — Scythians — Arabs — Aquilius — Abraham — Hezekiah — David — Mardo- nius — Moses and the people of Edom — Burckhardt in Petra — Woman of Bahurim — Persian tradition — Ali, the fourth Caliph — Covering wells with large stones — Mahommedan tradition — Themistocles — Edicts of Greek emperors — Well at Heliopolis — Juvenal — Roman and Grecian curbs of marble — Capitals of ancient columns converted into curbs for wells. A knowledge of the depth and other circumstances, relating to some ancient wells, is necessary to a due investigation of the various methods of raising water from them. We cannot indeed form a correct judgment of the latter, without some acquaintance with the former. 'Ward's Hindoos, 342, 352. »» Hone's Every Day Book, ii, 636, 685. Fosbroke, 684. 38 Wells without Curls. [Book I The wells of Asia are generally of great depth, and of course were so in former times. In Guzzerat, they are from eighty to a hundred feet ; in the adjoining province of Mulwah, they are frequently three hundred feet. In Ajmeer, they are from one to two hundred feet. Mr. Elphin- stone in his mission to Cabaul observes, ' the wells are often three hun- dred feet deep ; one was three hundred and forty five ;' and with this enormous depth, some are only three feet in diameter. The famous well of ancient Tyre, ' whose merchants were princes, and whose traffickers were the honorable of the earth,' is, according to some travelers, without a bottom ; but La Roque, is said by Volney, to have found it at the depth of 'six and thirty fathom.' Shalmanezer besieged this city of mechanics for five years, without being able to take it ; at last he cut off the waters of this well, when the inhabitants dug others within the city ; after which they held out against Nebuchadnezzar, and the whole power of the Babylonian empire for thirteen years ; being the longest siege on record, except that of Ashdod. Jos. Antiq. ix, 14. Ancient Carthagenian wells of great depth have been already mentioned. Dr. Shaw (Trav. 135,) observes of a tribe of the Ka- byles, ' their country is very dry, they have no fountains or rivulets, and in order to obtain water, they dig wells ' to the depth of from one to two hundred fathom.' Jacob's well is a hundred and nine feet, and Joseph's well at Cairo, near three hundred feet deep. The well Zemzem at Mecca, is two hundred and ten feet. ' Exceeding deep wells' in Surat, are men- tioned by Toreen, in Osbeck's Voyage to China. That the wells of Attica were generally deep, is obvious from a provision in Solon's law respecting them, by which a person, after digging to the depth of sixty feet without obtaining water, was allowed to fill a six gallon vessel twice a day at his neighbor's well. The frequency of not meeting with water at that depth, evidently gave rise to this provision.* The wells of Herculaneum and Pompeii, were probably all of considerable depth, if we judge from those that have been discovered. WELLS WITHOUT CURBS. Another feature in ancient — particularly Asiatic — wells, was, they were often without curbs or parapets built round them ; hence animals often fell into them and were killed. A very ancient law enacted, that, ' if a man shall open or dig a pit, [a well] and not cover it ; and an ox or an ass fall therein, the owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money to the owner of them, and the dead beasts shall be his.' Exo. xxi, 33, 34. This was probably an old Phenician and Egyptian law which the Is- raelites adopted from its obvious utility. Josephus' account of it is more explicit : ' let those that dig a WELL or a pit, be careful to lay planks over them, and so keep them shut up, not to hinder persons from drawing wa- ter, but that there may be no danger of falling into them.' Antiq. iv, 8. Numerous examples of the utility of such a law might be produced from oriental histories. Benaiah, one of the three famous warriors of David, who broke through the hosts of the Philistines and drew water for him out of the well of Bethlehem, ' slew a lion in the midst of a pit in the time of snow.' Sam. xxiii, 20 : from Josephus, this appears to have been one of the ordinary wells of the country, which having no curb, had been left open, and the 'lion slipped and fell into it.' Antiq. vii, 12. ' On our way back to the town, we saw a poor ass dying in a pit, into a Plutarch's Life of Solon. Chap. 6.] Wells without Curls. 39 which he had fallen with his legs tied, that being the practice of the Arabs when they send out these animals to feed.'a The custom of the Arabs in this respect has probably, like many others, undergone no change. It ex- plains the necessity of the law in Exodus, as quoted above. As two elephant drivers, each on his elephant, one of which was re- markably large and powerful, and the other small and weak, were ap- proaching a well, the latter carried at the end of his proboscis a bucket by which to raise the water. The larger animal instigated by his driver, (who was not provided with one,) seized and easily wrested it from the weaker elephant, which, though unable to resent the insult, obviously felt it. At length, watching his opportunity when the other was standing amid* the crowd with his side to the well, he retired backwards in a very quiet and unsuspicious manner, and then rushing forward with all his might, drove his head against the side of the robber, and fairly pushed him into the well — the surface of the water in which, was twenty feet below the level of the ground. But animals were not the only sufferers : — There are passages in an- cient authors which indicate the loss of human life both accidentally and by design, in consequence of the absence of curbs to wells. Thus Hylas who accompanied Hercules on the Argonautic expedition, went ashore to draw water from a well or fountain, and he fell in and was drowned. Virgil represents the companions of Hylas after missing him, as spread- inp- themselves along the coast and loudly repeating his name : And Hylas, whom his messmates loud deplore, While Hylas ! Hylas ! rings from all the shore. EC. vi, 48. Wrangham. Archelaus of Macedon, a contemporary of Socrates, ascended the throne by the most horrid crimes. Among others whom he murdered, was his own brother, a boy only seven years old. He threw his body into a well, and endeavored to make his mother believe that the child fell in, ' as he was running after a goose.' Bayle. When Alexander, like a demon, destroyed the city of Thebes, (the ca- pital of one of the States of Greece,) and murdered six thousand of its inhabitants, a party of Thracian soldiers belonging to his army demolished the house of Timoclea, a lady of distinguished virtue and honor. The soldiers carried off the booty, and their captain having violated the lady, asked her, if she had not concealed some of her treasures: she told him she had, and taking him alone with her into the garden, she showed him a well, into which she said she had thrown every thing of value. Now we are told, that as he stooped down to look into the well, this high spi- rited and much injured lady pushed him in, and killed him with stones.b From these accounts, it appears that wells belonging to private houses in ancient Greece, were sometimes without curbs, although they probably had portable or ivooden covers. That these were common, is evident from a pas- sage already quoted from Josephus ; and the remains of one have been discovered in Pompeii.0 The private well mentioned in 2 Sam. xvii, 18, had no curb. Indeed it is evident from the New Testament, that the an- cient custom of leaving the upper surface of wells level with the ground, prevailed among the Jews, through the whole of their history, from their independence as a nation, to their final overthrow by Titus. ' What man among you having one sheep, if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will aSt. John's Egypt, i, 354. b Plutarch's Life of Alexander. c Pompeii, ii, 204. 40 Reasons for not placing Curls round Wells. [Book I, he not lav hold of it and lift it out? Matt, xii, 11. And again in Luke, ' which of you shall have an ass, or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day.' xiv, 5. In these passages, which are parallel to those quoted from Exodus and Josephus, the word ' pit' is synonymous with ' well.' In Antiq. vii, 12. ' the well of Bethlehem,' is called a ' pit.' Wells without curbs are met with in Judea and the east generally, at the present time, although they are not so numerous as formerly. Mr. Stephens, in his ' Incidents of Travel,' observed on the road to Gaza, ' two remarkable wells of the very best Roman workmanship, about fifty feet deep, lined with large hard stones, as firm and perfect as on the day on which they were laid; the up- permost layer on the top of the well, ' was on a level with the pavement.4 In some illustrations of the Book of Genesis, executed in the fourth or fifth century, one represents the interview between Rebecca and Eliezer ; the well is square, and the curb but a few inches high. REASONS FOR NOT PLACING CURBS ROUND THE MOUTHS OF WELLS. The motives which induced the ancients to leave their wells without curbs were various : 1. That they might be more readily concealed. This was a universal custom in times of war. When Darius invaded Scythia, the inhabitants did not attempt an open resistance, but covered up their wells and springs and retired. Herod, iv, 120. Mr. Elphinstone, in his mission to Cabaul, says, the people ' have a mode of covering their wells with boards, heaped with sand, that effectually conceals them from an enemy.' Diodorus Si- culus, remarked the same of the Bedouin Arabs, eighteen centuries ago, and they still practise it. Travelers in tho Lybian desert are often six and seven days without water, and frequently perish for want of it ; ' the drifting sand having covered the marks of the wells.'b Wells, when thus con- cealed ' can only be found by persons whose profession it is to pilot cara- vans across this ocean of sand, and the sagacity with which these men per- form their duty is wonderful ;' like pilots at sea with nothing but the stars to direct them. 2. To prevent them from being poisoned or filled up, both of which frequently occurred. The Roman General Aquilius conquered the cities of the kingdom of Pergamus, one by one, by poisoning the waters. This horrid crime has always prevailed. In 1320, many Jews were burnt in France, while others were massacred by the infuriate people, under the belief that they had poisoned the wells and fountains of Paris. The Earl of Savoy was poisoned in this manner in 1384, and the practice was com- mon in the fifteenth century.0 Some of the wells belonging to Abraham, were stopped up by the inhabitants. ' And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them, after the death of Abraham.' Gen. xxvi, IS. ' We walked on some distance to a well, which we found full of sand ; Hussein scooped it out with his hands, when the water rose and all of us drank.' Lindsay's Trav. Let. 7. When the Assyrians under Senacherib, invaded Judea in the eighth century, B. C. * Hezekiah took counsel with his princes and mighty men, to stop the waters of the foun- tains which were without the city ; and they stopped all the fountains, saying, why should the king of Assyria come here and find much water V 2 Kings, iii, 19. 25. a Vol. ii, 101, and Lindsay's Trav. Let. 9. b Ogilvy's Africa, 281. cMezeray's France. Lon. 1683. pp. 349, 408, 414. Chap. 6.J Great Value of Water. 41 The custom of leaving the principal supply of water without the walls of the more ancient cities, is remarkable ; and the reason for it has not yet been satisfactorily explained. The water which supplied Alba Longa, lay in a very deep glen, and was therefore scarcely defensible ; but the springs of the Scamander at Troy, of Enneacrunus at Athens ; of Dirce at Thebes, and innumerable others, prove that such instances were com- mon.* When David waged war against the Ammonites, his success, ac- cording to Josephus, was chiefly owing to his general cutting off their waters, and especially those of a particular well. Antiq. vii, 1. Mardo- nius stopped up the Gargaphian fountain, which supplied the Grecian ar- my with water, an act which brought on in its vicinity, the famous battle of Platea, in which he was slain, and the power of Persia in Greece finally prostrated. A remarkable instance of the labor and perseverance of ancient soldiers, in cutting off a well or fountain from besieged places, is given by Caesar in his Commentaries on the War in Gaul, viii, 33. 3. To prevent the water from being stolen; which could scarcely have been prevented at wells with curbs, for they could not then have been con- cealed. We must bear in mind that the extreme scarcity of water in the east, required a vigilant and parsimonious care of it ; and hence continual quarrels arose from attempts to purloin it, or to take it by force. ' And the herdsmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, the water is ours.' Gen. xxvi, 20. This kind of strife, says Dr. Richardson, between the different villagers, still exists, as it did in the days of Abra- ham and Lot. It was customary for shepherds to seize on the wells be- fore others came, lest there should not be sufficient water for all their flocks, and it was at an occurrence of this kind, that Moses first became ac- quainted with Zipporah and her sisters. Jos. Antiq. ii, 11. " Nearly six hours beyond the ruined town of Kournou, and two beyond the dry bed of a small stream called El Gerara, [the brook of Gerar?] we were sur- prised at finding two large and deep wells, beautifully built of hewn stone. The uppermost course, and about a dozen troughs for watering cattle dis- posed round them, of a coarse white marble ; they were evidently coeval with the Romans. Quite a patriarchal scene presented itself as we drew near to the wells ; the Bedouins were watering their flocks ; two men at each well letting down the skins and pulling them up again, with almost ferocious haste, and with quick savage shouts." Lindsay's Trav. Let. 9. The scarcity of water in those countries has from the remotest times made it an object of merchandise. — " Ye shall also buy water of them for money that ye may drink." Deut. ii, 6, 28. And Jeremiah — " we have drunken our water for money." Lam. v, 4. See Ezekiel, iv, 16, 17. This value of water may be perceived in the negotiation of Moses with the king of Edom, for a passage through that country. He pledged him- self that his countrymen would not injure the fields or the vineyards ; "neither," says he, "will we drink of the waters of the wells;" and in a subsequent proposition, he adds, " if I and my cattle drink of thy waters, then I will pay for it." Num. xx, 17, 19. It is we think evident from the text, that the great quantities of water which such a host would re- quire, was the principal objection urged by the people of Edom ; they were afraid, and very naturally too, that a million of souls might drain all their wells while passing through the land, a calamity that might prove fatal to themselves. Brooks and rivers, were dried up by the army of Xerxes as he advanced towards Greece. It may be observed here, that when in 1811, Burckhardt discovered a Gell'a Topography of Rome, i, 34. 6 42 Wells covered by large Stones. [Book L Petra, the long lost capital of Edom, an intense interest was excited among the learned men of Europe, and several hastened to behold the most extraordinary city of the world ; a city excavated out of the rocks, whose origin goes back to the times of Esau, the 'father of Edom/ and which had for more than a thousand years, been completely lost to the civilized world. But the natives swore, as in the times of Moses, they should not enter their country, nor drink of their water, and they threatened to shoot them like dogs, if they attempted it. It was with much difficulty and danger, that Burckhardt at length succeeded in obtaining a glimpse of this singular city. He was disguised as an Arab, and passed under the name of Sheik Ibrahim. The difficulty and danger of a visit to Petra, is now however in a great measure removed by the present Pasha, Ma- hommed Ali. From the custom of concealing many ancient wells, we learn the im- portant fact, that machines for raising the water could not have been at- tacked to, or permanently placed near them. As these, as well as curbs or parapets projecting above the ground, would have betrayed to ene- mies and strangers their location. When the woman at Bahurim secreted David's spies in the well belonging to her house, and " spread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon;" 2 Sam. xvii, 19, her device could not have succeeded, if a curb had enclosed its mouth, or if any permanent machine had been erected to raise the water from it; as these would have indicated the well to the soldiers of Absalom, who would certainly have examined it, because wells were frequently used as hiding places in those days. There is a tradition in Persia that one of the Armenian patriarchs, was concealed several years in a well, during the persecution of the Christians under Dioclesian and Maximinian ; and was * privately relieved by the daily charity of a poor godly woman.' Fryer, 271. When Ali the fourth Caliph of the Arabians, marched with ninety thousand men into Syria, the army was in want of water. An old hermit, whose cell was near the camp, was applied to ; he said he knew but of one cistern, which might contain two or three buckets of water. The Caliph replied that the ancient patriarchs had dug wells in that neighbor- hood. The hermit said there was a tradition of a well whose mouth was closed by a stone of an enormous size, but no person knew where it was. Ali caused his men to dig in a spot which he pointed out, and not far from the surface, the mouth of the well was found.* Where wells were too well known to be concealed, as those in the neighborhood of towns, villages, &c. they were sometimes secured by large stones placed over them, which required the combined strength of several persons to remove. ' A great stone was upon the well's mouth; and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well's mouth.' Gen. xxix, 2, 3. The Ma- hommedans have a tradition that the well at which Moses watered the flocks of his father-in-law, was covered by a stone which required several men to remove it. It is indeed obvious large stones only could have been used, for small ones could not extend across the wells, which were fre- quently of large diameter. Jacob's well is nine feet across, and some were larger The curb round the well Zemzem at Mecca, is ten feet in diameter. " Another time we passed an ancient well," says Lindsay, Let. 10, " in an excursion from Jerusalem to Jericho and the Dead Sea, its mouth sealed with a large stone, with a hole in the centre, through which aMartigny's History of the Arabians, ii, 49. Chap. 6.] Roman and Grecian Curbs. 43 we threw a pebble, but there was no water, and we should have been sorry had there been any, for our united strength could not have removed the seal." Notwithstanding the precautions used, shepherds were often detected in fraudulently watering their flocks at their neighbors' wells, to prevent which, locks were used to secure the covers. These continued to be used till recent times. M. Chardin noticed them in several parts of Asia. The wells at Suez, according to Niebuhr, are surrounded by a strong wall to keep out the Arabs, and entered by a door 'fastened with enor- mous clamps of iron.' In Greece as in Asia, those werejlned who stole water. When Themistocles during his banishment was in Sardis, he ob- served in the temple of Cybele a female figure of brass, called ' Hydro- phorus* or Water Bearer, which he himself had caused to be made and dedicated out of the fines of such as had stolen the water, or diverted the stream.a One of the Greek emperors of Constantinople issued an edict A. D. 404, imposing a fine of a pound of gold for every ounce of water surreptitiously taken from the reservoirs.1* And a more ancient ruler re- marked that ' stolen ivaters are sweet.' Proverbs, ix, 17. The ancient Peruvians had a similar law. Curbs or parapets were generally placed round the mouths of wells in the cities of Greece and Rome, as appears from many of them preserved to the present time, as well as those discovered in Pompeii and Herculaneum. The celebrated mosaic pavement at Preneste, contains the representation of an ancient well; by some authors supposed to be the famous fountain of Heliopolis. Montfaucon and Dr. Shaw have given a figure of it. The curb is represented as built of brick or cut stone. Curbs were generally massive cylinders of marble and mostly formed of one Nock, but some- times of two, cramped together with iron. Their exterior resembled round altars. Those of the Greeks were ornamented with highly wrought sculptures and were about twenty inches high. Roman curbs were ge- nerally plain, but one has been found in the street of the Mercuries at Pompeii, beautifully ornamented with triglyphs. To these curbs Juvenal appears to allude : Oh! how much more devoutly should we cling To thoughts that hover round the sacred spring, Were it still margined with its native green, And not a marble near the spot were seen. Sat. iii, 30 Badham. That Roman wells were generally protected by curbs, appears also from a remark of the elder Pliny : " at Gades the fountain next to the temple of Hercules, is enclosed about like a well." B. ii, 97. Dr. Shaw mentions se- veral Roman wells with corridors round, and cupolas over them, in various parts of Mauritania. Trav. 237. Mr. Dodwell describes the rich curb of a Corinthian well, ten figures of divinities being carved on it. Such deco- rations he says were common to the sacred wells of Greece. In various parts of Asia and Egypt, the finest columns have been bro- ken and hollowed out to serve as curbs to wells ; and in some instances, the capitals of splendid shafts may be seen appropriated to the same pur- pose. Although such scenes are anything but pleasant to the enlightened traveler, the preservation of valuable fragments of antiquity has been se- cured by these and similar applications of them. They certainly are less subject to destruction, as curbs of wells, than when employed, like the fine Corinthian capital of Parian marble, which Dr. Shaw observed at Arzew, ' as a block for a blacksmith's anvil' Trav. 29, 30. "Plutarch's I/fe of Themistocles. bHydraulia, p. 232. Lon. 1835. 44 Description of andent Wells. [Book 1 CHAPTER VII. Wells concluded: Description of Jacob's well— Of Zemzera in Mecca— Of Joseph's well at Cairo- Reflections on wells— Oldest monuments extant— Wells at Elim— Bethlehem— Cos— Scyros— Heliopolis — Persepolis— Jerusalem— Troy— Ephesus— Tadmor— Mizra— Sarcophagi employed as watering troughs — Stone coffin of Richard III used as one — Ancient American wells — Indicate the existence in past times of a more refined people than the present red men— Their examination desirable— Might furnish (like the wells at Athens,) important data of former ages. A description of some celebrated wells may here be inserted, as we shall have occasion to refer to them hereafter. Jacob's well, is one of the most ancient and interesting. Through a period of thirty-five cen- turies it has been used by that patriarch's descendants, and distinguished by his name. This well is, as every reader of scripture knows, near Sy- char, the ancient Shechem, on the road to Jerusalem, and has been visited by pilgrims in all ages. Long before the Christian era, it was greatly re- vered, and subsequently it has been celebrated on account of the inter- view which the Savior had with the woman of Samaria near it. Its lo- cation according to Dr. Clarke is so distinctly marked by the Evangelist, and so little liable to uncertainty from the circumstances of the well itself, and the features of the country, that if no tradition existed for its identity, the site of it could hardly be mistaken. The date of its construction may, for aught that is known to the con trary, extend far beyond the times of Jacob; for we are not informed that it was digged by him. As it is on land which he purchased for a residence, "of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem," and was in the vicinity of a Canaanitish town ; it may have been constructed by the forme> owners of the soil, and probably was so. The woman of Samaria when conversing with the Savior respecting it, asks ' Art thou greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, his children and cattle 1" John, iv, 12. She does not say he dug it. This famous well is one 7iundred and Jive feet deep, and nine feet in diameter, and when Maundrell visited it, it contained fifteen feet of water. Its great an- tiquity will not appear very extraordinary, if we reflect that it is bored through the solid rock, and therefore could not be destroyed, except by an earthquake or some other convulsion of nature ; indeed wells of this description, are the most durable of ^all man's labors, and may, for aught we know, last as long as the world itself. The well Zcmzem at Mecca, may be regarded as another very ancient one. It is considered by Mahometans one of the three holiest things in the world, and as the source whence the great progenitor of the Arabs was refreshed when he and his mother left his father's house. " She saw a well of water, and she went and filled the bottle with water and gave the lad to drink." Gen. xxi, 19. This well, the Caaba and the black stone,a were connected with the idolatry of the ancient Arabs, centuries before the time of Mahomet. The Caaba is said to have been built by Abraham and Ishmael, and it is certain that their names have been con- nected with it from the remotest ages. Diodorus Siculus, mentions it as a This stone like those of the Hindoos and the one mentioned in Acts, xix, "fell down from heaven" and is probably a meteorite. Chap. 7] Well Zemzem. 45 being held in great veneration by the Arabs in his time. [50, B. C.] The ceremonies still performed, of " encircling the Caaba seven times, kissing the black stone, and drinking of the water of the well Zemzem," by the pilgrims, were practices of the ancient idolaters, and which Mahomet, as an adroit politician, incorporated into his system, when unable to repress them. The conduct of the pilgrims when approaching this well and drinking of its water, has direct reference to that of Hagar, and to her feelings when searching for water to preserve the life of her expiring son. If we reflect on the infinite value of wells in Syria — on the jealous care with which they have always been preserved — that while they afforded good water, they could never be lost — that Mecca is one of the most an- cient cities of the world, the supposed Mesa of the scriptures, Gen. x, 30, — and that this well is the only one in the city, whose waters can be drunk : — we cannot but admit the possibility at least, that it is the identi- cal one, as the Arabs contend, of whose waters, Ishmael and his mother partook. We are not aware that any modern author has had an opportunity of closely examining it ; it being death for a Christian to enter the Caaba. Burckhardt visited the temple in the disguise of a pilgrim, but we believe he had not an opportunity to ascertain any particulars relating to its depth, &c. Purchas, quoting Barthema, who visited Mecca in 1503, says it is " three score and ten yards deepe," [210 feet,] " thereat stand sixe or eight men, appointed to draw water for the people, who after their seven- fold ceremonie come to the brinke," &c. Pil. p. 306. In Crichton's His- tory of Arabia, Ed. 1833. Vol. ii, 218, this well is said to be fifty-six feet to the surface of the water. The curb is of fine white marble, five feet high, and seven feet eight inches in its interior diameter. In the 317th year of the Hegira, the Karmatians slew seventeen thousand pilgrims within the cir- cumference of the Caaba, and filled this famous well with the dead bo- dies;— they also carried off the Black Stone. JOSEPH'S WELL. — The most remarkable well ever made by man, is Jo- seph's well at Cairo. Its magnitude, and the skill displayed in its con- struction, which is perfectly unique, have never been surpassed. All travelers have spoken of it with admiration. This stupendous well is an oblong square, twenty-four feet by eighteen; being sufficiently capacious to admit within its mouth a moderate sized house. It is excavated (of these dimensions,) through solid rock to the depth of one hundred and sixty-five feet where it is enlarged into a capa- cious chamber, in the bottom of which is formed a basin or reservoir, to receive the water raised from below, (for this chamber is not the bottom of the well.) On one side of the reservoir another shaft is continued, one hundred and thirty feet lower, where it emerges ^hrough the rock into a bed of gravel, in which the water is found. The whole depth, being two hundred and ninety-seven feet. The lower shaft is not in the same ver- tical line with the upper one, nor is it so large, being fifteen feet by nine. As the water is first raised into the basin, by means of ma- chinery propelled by horses or oxen within the chamber, it may be asked, how are these animals conveyed to that depth in this tremendous pit, and by what means do they ascend 1 It is the solution of this prob- lem that renders Joseph's well so peculiarly interesting, and which indi- cates an advanced state of the arts, at the period of its construction. A spiral passage-way is cut through the rock, from the surface of the ground to the chamber, independent of the well, round which it winds with so gentle a descent, that persons sometimes ride up or down upon Joseph's Well, [Book 1. I asses or mules. It is six feet four in- ches wide, and seven feet two inches high. Between it and the interior of the well, a wall of rock is left, to pre- vent persons falling into, or even look- ing down it, (which in some cases would be equally fatal,) except through certain openings or windows, by means of which, it is faintly lighted from the interior of the well : by this passage the animals descend, which drive the machinery that raises the water from the lower shaft into the reservoir or basin, from which it is again elevated by similar machinery, and other oxen on the surface of the ground. See figure. In the lower shaft, a path is also cut down to the water, but as no partition is left between it and the well, it is extremely perilous for strangers to descend. The square openings represented on each side of the upper shaft, are sec- tions of the spiral passage, and the zig- zag lines indicate its direction. The wheels at the top carry endless ropes, the lower parts of which reach down to the water ; to these, earthenware va- ses are secured by ligatures, see A, A, at equal distances through the whole of their length, so that when the machinery is moved, these vessels ascend full of water on one side of the wheels, dis- charge it into troughs as they pass over them and descend in an inverted po- sition on the other. For a further de- scription of this apparatus, see the chap- ter on the chain of pots. This celebrated production of former times, it will be perceived, resembles an enormous hollow screw, the centre of which forms the well, and the threads, a winding stair-case round it. To erect of granite a flight of " geometrical" or " well stairs," two or three hundred feet high, on the surface of the ground, would require extraordinary skill ; al- though in the execution, every aid from rules, measures, and the light of day, would guide the workmen at every step; but to begin such a work at the top, 1 and construct it downwards by excava- tion alone, in the dark bowels of the earth, is a more arduous undertaking, especially as deviations from the correct lines could not be remedied ; yet in Jo- No 7. Section of Joseph's Well. Chap. 7.] At Cairo. 47 seph's well, the partition of rock between the pit and the passage-way, and the uniform inclination of the latter, seem to have been ascertained •with equal precision, as if the whole had been constructed of cut stone on the surface. Was the pit, or the passage, formed first ; or were they simul- taneously carried on, and the excavated masses from both borne up the latter ] The extreme thinness of the partition wall, excited the astonish- ment of M. Jomard, whose account of the well is inserted in the second volume of Memoirs in Napoleon's great Work on Egypt, part 2nd, p. 691. It is, according to him, but sixteen centimetres thick, [about six in- ches !] He justly remarks that it must have required singular care to leave and preserve so small a portion while excavating the rock from both sides of it. It would seem no stronger in proportion, than sheets of pasteboard placed on edge, to support one end of the stairs of a modern built house, for it should be borne in mind, that the massive roof of the spiral passage next the well, has nothing but this film of rock to support it, or to prevent such portions from falling, as are loosened by fissures, or such, as from changes in the direction of the strata, are not firmly united to the general mass. But this is not all : thin and insufficient as it may seem, the bold designer has pierced it through its whole extent with semi- circular openings, to admit light from the well : those, on one side are shown in the figure. Opinions respecting the date of this well are exceedingly various. Po- cocke thought it was built by a vizier named Joseph, eight hundred years ago ; other authorities more generally attribute it to Saladin, the intrepid defender of his country against the hordes of European savages, who, un- der the name of crusaders, spread rapine and carnage through his land. His name was Yussef, [Joseph.] By the common people of Egypt, it has long been ascribed to the patriarch of that name, and their traditions are often well-founded ; of which we shall give an example in the ac- count of the Swape. Van Sleb, who visited Egypt several times in the 17th century, says, some of the people in his time, thought it was digged by spirits, and he adds, " I am almost inclined to believe it, for I cannot conceive how man can compass so wonderful a work."* This mode of accounting for ancient works is common among ignorant people, and may be considered as proof of their great antiquity. Dr. Robertson, in speak- ing of ancient monuments in India, remarks that they are of such high antiquity, that as the natives cannot, either from history or tradition, give any information concerning the time in which they were executed, they universally ascribe the formation of them to superior beings.b Some wri- ters believe this well to have been the work of a more scientific people than any of the comparatively modern possessors of Egypt — in other words, they think it the production of the same people that built the py- ramids and the unrivalled monuments of Thebes, Dendarah and Ebsam- boul. Lastly, Cairo is supposed by others, to occupy the site of Egyp- tian Babylon, and this well is considered by them, one of the remains of that ancient city. Amidst this variety of opinions respecting its origin, it is certain, that it is every way worthy of the ancient mechanics of Egypt ; and in its magnitude exhibits one of the prominent features which cha- racterize all their known productions. Why was this celebrated well made oblong] Its designer had cer- tainly his reasons for it. May not this form have been intended to en- lighten more perfectly the interior, by sooner receiving and- retaining longer the rays of the sun ] To what point of the compass its longest *The present state of Egypt, by F. Van Sleb. Lou. 1678. p. 248. b India, Appendix I 48 Reflections on Ancient Wells. [Book I. sides coincide, has not, that we are aware of, been recorded. Should they prove to be in the direction of the rising and setting sun, the reason sug- gested, may possibly be the true one. In Ogilvy's Africa, it is remarked that at the last city to the south of Egypt, " is a deep well, into whose bosom the sun shines at noon, while he passes to and again through the northern signs." p. 99. This is the same well that Strabo mentions at Syene, which marked the summer sol- stice— the day was known, when the style of the sun dial cast no shade at noon, arid the vertical sun darted his rays to the bottom of the well. It was at Syene, that Eratosthenes, 220 JB. C. made the first attempt to measure the circumference of the earth — and to the same city, the poet Juvenal was banished. REFLECTIONS ON ANCIENT WELLS. Before leaving this part of the subject, it may be remarked that an- cient wells are of very high interest, inasmuch as many of them are the only memorials, that have come down to us, of the early inhabitants of the world; and they differ from almost all other monuments of man in former times ; not only in their origin, design, and duration, but above all, in their UTILITY. In this respect, no barren monument, of whatever magnitude or material, which ambition, vanity, or power, has erected, at the expense of the labor and lives of the oppressed, can ever be com- pared with them. Such monuments are, with few exceptions, proofs of a people's sufferings; and \vere generally erected to the basest of our spe- cies: whereas ancient wells have, through the long series of past ages, continually alleviated human woe ; and have furnished man with one of nature's best gifts without the least alloy. It would almost appear, as if the divine Being had established a law, by which works of pure beneficence and real utility should endure almost for ever ; while those of mere magnificence, however elaborately con- structed, should in time pass away. The temple of Solomon — his golden house, ivory palaces, and splendid gardens are wholly gone ; but the plain cisterns, which he built to supply his people with water, remain almost as perfect as ever. Thus the pride of man is punished by a law, to which the most favored of mortals formed no exception. An additional interest is attached to several wells and fountains of the old world, from the frequent allusion to them in the Scriptures, and by the classical writers of Greece and Rome. In addition to those already named, the following may be noticed. When the Israelites left Egypt, " they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and three score and ten palm trees." Now the Grove of Elim yet flourishes; and its fountains have neither increased nor diminished, since the Israelites encamped by them.a Modern travelers in Palestine often allay their thirst at the well which belonged to the birth place of David, the " Well of Bethlehem," whose waters he so greatly preferred to all others. The inhabitants of Cos, drink of the same spring which Hippocrates used twenty -three hundred years ago ; and their traditions still connect it with his name. The nymphs of Scyros, another island in the Egean, in the early ages assembled at a certain fountain to draw water for domestic uses. This fountain, says Dr. Clarke, exists in its original state; and is still the same rendezvous as formerly, of love or of gallantry, of gossip- a We are aware that Dr. Shaw — Travels, p. 350— observed but nine wells. He says, al that time, three of them were filled up with sand; but the whole \vere to be seen a short time previous to his visiting them, and we believe since. Chap. 7. Aqueducts, Fountains, and Cisterns. 49 ping and tale telling. Young women may be seen coming from it in groups, and singing, with vases on their heads, precisely as represented on ancient marbles. It was at Scyros where young Achilles was concealed to prevent his going to the Trojan war. He was placed among, and habited like, the daughters of Lycomedes; but Ulysses adroitly discovered him, by offering for sale, in the disguise of a pedler, a fine suit of armor, among trinkets for women. Heliopolis, the city of the Sun, the ON of Genesis, of which Joseph's father-in-law was governor and priest, and whose inhabitants, according to Herodotus, (ii. 3.) were the most ingenious of all the Egyptians, and where the philosophers of Greece assembled to acquire "the wisdom of Egypt," was famous for its fountain of excellent water: — this fountain, with a solitary obelisk, is all that remains to point out the place where that splendid city stood. Aqueducts, fountains, cisterns and wells, are in numerous instances the only remains of some of the most celebrated cities of the ancient world. Of Heliopolis, Syene and Babylon in Egypt; of Tyre, Sidon, Palmyra, Nineveh, Carthage, Utica, Barca, and many others; and when, in the course of future ages, the remaining portals and columns of Persepolis are entirely decayed, and its sculptures crumbled to dust :. its cisterns and and aqueduct (both hewn out of the rock) will serve to excite the curi- osity of future antiquaries, when every other monument of the city to which they belonged has perished. The features of nature, says Dr. Clarke, continue the same, though works of art may be done away: the ' beautiful gate' of the Jerusalem temple is no more, but Siloah's Foun- tain still flows, and Kedron yet murmurs in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. According to Chateaubriand, the Pool of Bethesda, a reservoir, one hun- dred and fifty feet by forty, constructed of large stones cramped with iron, and lined with flints embedded iif cement, is the only specimen re- maining of the ancient architecture of that city. Ephesus, too, is no more ; and the temple of Diana, that according to Pliny was 220 years in building, and upon which was lavished the talent and treasure of the east; the pride of all Asia, and one of the wonders of the world, has vanished; while the fountains which furnished the citi- zens with water, remain as fresh and perfect as ever. And as a tremen- dous satire on all human grandeur, it may be remarked, that a few solitary marble sarcophagi, \vhich once enclosed the mighty dead of Ephesus, have been preserved — but as ivatering troughs for cattle /a Cisterns have been discovered in the oldest citadels of Greece. The fountains of Bounarbashi are perhaps the only objects remaining, that can be relied on, in locating the palace of Priam and the site of ancient Troy. And the well near the outer walls of the temple of the sun at Palmyra, will, in all probability, furnish men with water, when other relics of Tadmor in the wilderness have disappeared.1* To conclude, a great number of the wells of the ancient world still supply man with water, although their history generally, is lost in the night of time. a Mr. Addison, in his journey southward from Damascus, says the fountain at Nazcra, in Gallilee, "trickles from a spout into a marble trough, which appears to have been an ancient sarcophagus." And close by the well at Mizra, he observed fragments of an- other, which had been used for a similar purpose. We may add, that Speed, the old English historian, remarks that the stone coffin of Richard 3d, " is now made a drinking trough for horses at a common Inn." Edition of 1615, p. 737. bLord Lindsay's Letters, (10.)— Phil. Trans. Lowthorp's Abridg. iii, 490. 50 Wells, among the Antiquities of America. [Book I. ANCIENT AMERICAN WELLS. As wells are among the most ancient of man's labors, that are extant in the old world, might we not expect to find some on these continents, relics of those races, who, in the unknown depths of time, are supposed to have cultivated the arts of civilization here 1 We might: and true it is that among the proofs that a populous and much more enlightened people than the Indians have ever been, were at one time the possessors of Ame- rica, ancient wells have been adduced. "From the highest point of the Ohio, says Mr. T. Flint, to where I am now writing (St. Charles on the Missouri) and far up the upper Mississippi and Missouri, the more the country is explored and peopled, and the more its surface is penetrated, not only are there more mounds brought to view, but more incontestible marks of a numerous population. WELLS, ARTIFICIALLY WALLED, dif- ferent structures of convenience or defence, have been found in such num- bers, as no longer to excite curiosity" But American antiquities were so novel, so unlocked for, and so insu- lated from those of the old world, that learned men were greatly per- plexed at their appearance ; and at a loss to account for their origin. This is still, in a great measure, the case. A mystery, hitherto impenetrable, hangs over the primeval inhabitants of these continents. Who they were, and whence they came, are problems that have hitherto defied all the re- searches of antiquarians. Nothing, perhaps, but the increasing occupa- tion of the soil, and excavations which civilization induces, will eventually determine the question, whether these antiquities are to be attributed to European settlers of the sixteenth century; to the enterprising Scandina- vians, the North Men, who, centuries before the voyages of Columbus and the Cabots, visited the shores of New England, New York and the Jerseys ; or whether some of them did not belong to an indigenous or Cuthite race, who inhabited those prolific regions, in times when the mastodon and mammoth and megalonix were yet in the land. No one can reflect on the myriads of our species who have occupied this half of the globe — perhaps from times anterior to the flood — without longing to know something of their history ; of their physical and intel- lectual condition; their languages, manners and arts; of the revolutions through which they passed ; and especially of those circumstances which caused them to disappear before the progenitors of the present red men. The subject is one of the most interesting that ever exercised the human mind. It is calculated to excite the most thrilling sensations, and we have often expressed our surprise, that one of the most obvious and pro- mising sources of information has never been sufficiently investigated : we allude to ancient wells, a close examination of which, might lead to discoveries equally interesting, and far more important, than those which resulted from a similar examination of Grecian wells. Dr. Clarke says, that "Vases of Terra Cotta, of the highest antiquity, have been found in cleansing the wells of Athens. "a Some persons may perhaps suppose the old wells in the western parts of this continent, to be the work of Indians ; but these people have never been known to make any thing like a regular well. Mr. Catlin, the artist, * A Roman well was discovered in the seventeenth century, near the great road which leads to Carlisle, in England. Instead of being walled up with stone, it was lined with large casks or hogsheads, six feet deep, and made of pine. The well was covered with oak plank nine inches thick. In it were found nrns, drinking cups, san- dals and shoes, the soles of which were stitched and nailed. Phil Trans. Lowthorp's Abridg. iii, 431. Chap. 8.J Ancient Modes of raising "Water. 51 who spent eight years among those on the upper waters of the Missis- sippi and Missouri, and another gentleman who had long been east of the Rocky mountains, among the Flat Heads, and other tribes towards the Pacific, both inform us that the wild and untutored Indians never have recourse to wells. They in fact have no need of them, as their villages are invariably located on the borders or vicinity of rivers. In some cases of suffering from thirst while traveling, they, in common with other sava- ges, sometimes scrape a hole in sand or wet soil, to obtain a temporary supply. CHAPTER VIII. Ancient methods of raising water from wells : Inclined planes — Stairs within wells : In Mesopotamia —Abyssinia— Hindostan— Persia— Judea— Greece— Thrace— England— Cord and bucket : Used at Ja- cob's well — by the patriarchs — Mahomet — In Palestine — India — Alexandria — Arabian Vizier drawing wa- ter— Gaza — Herculaneum and Pompeii — Wells within the houses of the latter city — Aleppo — Tyre—- Carthage—Cleanthes the ' Well Drawer' of Athens, and successor of Zeno— Democritus— Plautus— As- clepiadou and Menedemus — Cistern pole — Roman cisterns and cement — Ancient modes of purifying water. WE are now to examine the modes practised by the ancients, in ob- taining water from wells. When the first simple excavations became so far deepened, that the water could no longer be reached by a vessel in the hand, some mode of readily procuring it under such circumstances would soon be devised. In all cases of moderate depth, the most simple and efficient, was to form an inclined plane or passage, from the surface of the ground to that of the water ; a device by which the principal ad- vatages of an open spring on the surface were retained, and one by which domestic animals could procure water for themselves without the aid or attendance of man. There is reason to believe that this was one of the primitive methods of obtaining the liquid, when it was but a short dis- tance below the surface of the ground ; and was most likely impercep- tibly introduced by the gradual deepening of, or enlarging the cavities of natural springs, or artificial excavations. But when in process of time, these became too deep for exterior pas- sages of this kind to be convenient or practicable, the wells themselves were enlarged, and stairs or steps for descending to the water, constructed within them. The circumstances recorded in Genesis, xxiv, induce us to believe that the well at which Eliezer, the steward of Abraham, met Re- becca, was one of these. When the former arrived at Nahor, he made his camels " to kneel down without the city by a well of water, at the time of the evening that women go out to draw water : and Rebecca came out with her pitcher upon her shoulder — and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher and came up" Had any machine been attached to this well, to raise its water, or had a vessel suspended to a cord been used, she could have had no occasion to descend. It therefore appears that the liquid was obtained by immersing the pitcher in it, and in order to do this, the persons « vent down' to the water. That this well was not deep, may be inferred from the fact that Rebecca drew water suffi- cient to quench the thirst of ten camels, for it is said, she supplied them, " till they had done drinking ;*" a task which no young female could have accomplished in the time implied in the text, if this well had been even 52 Wells with Stairs. [Book I. moderately deep, and one which under all circumstances was a laborious performance ; for these animals take a prodigious quantity of water at a time, sufficient to last them from ten to twenty days. Eliezer might well wonder at the ingenuous and benevolent disposition of Rebecca, and every reader of the account is equally surprised at his insensibilty, in per- mittino- her to perform the labor unaided by himself or his attendants. Wells with stairs by which to descend to the water, are still common. The inhabitants of Arkeko in Abyssinia, are supplied with water from six wells, which are twenty feet deep and fifteen in diameter. The water is collected and carried up a broken ascent by men, women and children.8 Fryer in his Travels in India, p. 410, speaks of " deep wells many fathom under ground with stately stone stairs." Joseph's well in Egypt is ano- ther example of stairs both within and without. Bishop Heber observed one in Benares, with a tower over it, and a " steep flight of steps for de- scending to the water." Forrest, in his Tour along the Ganges and the Jumna, says, "near the village of Futtehpore, is a large well, ninety feet in circumference, with a broad stone staircase to descend to the water, which mi^ht be about thirty feet." Mr. Forbes, in his Oriental Memoirs, remarks that " many of the Guzzerat wells, have steps leading down to the water ; while others have not." In a preceding page, we quoted a passage from Ward's History of the Hindoos to the same effect. Ta- vernier, speaking of the scarcity of water in Persia, says, of wells they have a great many, and he describes one with steps down to the water.b " We passed a large and well built tank, with two flights of steps de- scending into it, at the opposite angles, possibly the pool of Hebron, where David hanged the murderers of Ishbosheth."c The fountain of Siloam is reached by a descent of thirty steps cut in the solid rock. The small quantity of water furnished by some wells, rendered a de- scent to it desirable, and hence it was often collected as fast as it appeared, by women who often waited for that purpose. " That which pleased me most of all," says Fryer, p. 126, " was a sudden surprise, when they brought me to the wrong side of a pretty square tank or well, with a w^all of stone breast high; when expecting to find it covered with water, looking down five fathom deep, I saw a clutter of women, very handsome, waiting the distilling of the water from its dewy sides, which they catch in jars. It is cut out of a black marble rock, up almost to the top, with broad steps to go down. Mr. Addison in his ' Journey Southward from Damascus,' says, " at the fountain near D'jenneen, the women used their hands as ladles to fill their pitchers. This scarcity of water, and the prac- tice of scooping it up in small quantities, are referred to, by both sacred and profane authors. " They came to the pits and found no water, they returned with their vessels empty." Jer. xiv, 3. " There shall not be found of it a sherd, [a potter's vessel,] to take fire from the hearth, or to take water out of the pit," — that is, to scoop it up when too shallow to J immerse a vase or pitcher in it. Isaiah, in, 14. St. Peter speaks of wells ' without water,' and Hosea, of ' fountains dried up.' The water nymphs lament their empty urns." Ovid, Met. ii, 278. The inhabitants of Libya, where the wells often contain little water, " draw it out in little buckets, made of the shank bones of the camel.d" Wells with stairs are not only of very remote origin, but they appear to have been used by all the nations of antiquity. They were common among the Greeks and Romans.* The well mentioned by Pausanias, of aEd. Encyc. Art. Arkeko. b Persian Trav. 157. c Lindsay's Trav. Let. 9. dOgilvy's Africa, 306. eLardner's Arts of the Greeks and Romans, i, 138. Chap. 8.] Cord and Bucket. 53 which we have spoken in a previous chapter, has steps which lead down to the water.* The well for the purification of worshippers, in the tem- ple of Isis, in Pompeii, has a descent by steps to the water.b The wells of Thrace, had generally a covered flight of steps.0 Ancient wells of similar construction are still to be seen in various parts of Europe. There is one near Hempstead, Eng. for the protection of which, an act of par- liament was passed in the reign of Henry VIII. Such wells, probably gave rise to the beautiful circular stairs so com- mon in old towers, and still known, as ' well stairs.' In G-alveston, (Texas,) and other parts of America, where there are no springs, cisterns are sunk in the sand between hillocks, into which the surface water drains, and steps are formed to lead down to it. CORD AND BUCKET. No. 8. Modern Greek female drawing water. No. 9. From a manuscript of the 12th century. However old and numerous wells with stairs within them may be, most of the ancient ones were constructed without them ; hence the ne- cessity of some mode of raising the water. From the earliest ages, a vessel suspended to a cord, has been used by all nations — a device more simple and more extensively employed than any other, and one which was undoubtedly the germ of the most useful hydraulic machines of the an- cients, as the chain of pots, chain pump, &c. That a cord and bucket were used to raise water from Jacob's well, nineteen centuries ago, is evident from the account of the interview, which the Savior had with the woman of Samaria at it. " Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, called Sichar ; now Jacob's well was there, and Jesus being wearied sat on the well ; and there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water ; Jesus saith unto her, give me to drink." Had any machine been attached to this well at that time, by which a traveler or stranger could raise it, he could have procured it for himself; and as he was thirsty, he probably would have done so, without waiting for any one to draw it for him ; but the reason why he did not, is subsequently explained by the woman herself; who, in replying to one of his remarks, the meaning of which she misappre- hended, said " Sir, thou hast nothing to draw witfi, and the well is deep." This well, as already remarked, is one hundred and five feet deep. Hence at that period every one carried the means of raising the water with him. No. 9. of the illustrations, is a representation of the woman of Samaria drawing water. It is from a Greek illuminated manuscript of the 12th century, from D'Agincourt's Storia Dell'Arte. It is still the general practice in the east, for any one, who goes to "For. Top. 196. b Pompeii, i, 277. clfydraulia, 166. 54 Cord and Bucket. [Book I draw water, to carry a vessel and cord with him, a custom which without doubt, has prevailed there since the patriarchal ages. This was the opinion of Mahomet, whose testimony on such a subject is unexceptiona- ble. He was an Arab — a people who pride themselves on the preserva- tion of the customs of their celebrated ancestors, Abraham, Ishmael, and Job. In his account of Joseph's deliverance from the pit, into which his brethren had cast him, (and which many commentators believe was a well, which at the time contained little or no water,) he says : " Certain travelers came, and sent one to draw water, (who went to the well in which Joseph was,) and Tie let down his bucket," &c. Koran, chap. xii. This account is perfectly consistent with that of Moses. Josephus, also, seems to have believed it to be a well : " Reubel took the lad and tied him to a cord, and let him down gently into the pit, for it had no water in it" Antiq. B. ii. 3. At 3 o'clock, (says Mr. Addison in his " Journey Southward from Damascus") we rode to a well (in approaching Cana of Galilee) in a field, where an Arab was watering his goats. There was a long stone trough by the side of the well, and this was filled with water by means of a leathern bucket attached to a rope, which the Arab carried about with him, for the convenience of himself and his herds. It was just such a scene as that described in Genesis : " And behold a well in the field, and lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it, for out of that well they watered their flocks, and a great stone was upon the well's mouth." Among the ruins of Mizra, in the great plain of Jezreel, the same traveler observes : " Surprised at the desolate aspect of the spot, I rode with my servant to a well a few yards distant, where two solitary men were watering their goats, by means of a leathern bucket attached to a rope ; and dismounting, I sat on the stone at the well's mouth." Mr. Forbes, after a residence of many years in Asia, said he " did not recollect any wells furnished with buckets and ropes for the convenience of strangers ; most travelers are therefore provided ivith them ; and halcarras and reli- gious pilgrims frequently carry a small brass pot affixed to a long string for this purpose." In ancient Alexandria, where the arts were cultivated and science flourished to an extent perhaps unequaled in any older city, water was drawn up from the cisterns, with which every house was provided, with the simple cord and bucket. This city was supplied with water from the Nile : it was admitted into vaulted reservoirs or cisterns, which were constructed at the time the foundations of the city were laid by Alexander. They were sufficiently capacious to contain water for a whole year, being filled only at the annual inundation of the river, through a canal made for the purpose. Apertures or well openings, through which the water was raised from these reservoirs, are still to be seen. " Whole lines of ancient streets are traceable," (says Lord Lindsay, Travels, Letter 2.) " by the wells recurring every six or seven yards : by which the contiguous houses, long since crumbled away, drew water from the vast cisterns with which the whole city was undermined." " Every house," says Rollin, " had an opening into its cistern, like the mouth of a well, through which the water was taken up either in buckets or pitchers." It may be said, this last quotation is not conclusive, since it does not indicate the manner in which the bucket was elevated — by a windlass ? a pulley 1 or by the hand alone 1 We have satisfactory evi- dence that it was by the latter. The pavement of the old city is from ten to thirty feet below the surface of the modern streets, and excavations are frequently made by the Pasha's workmen, for the stones of the old pave- Chapt. 8.] Cord and Bucket. , 55 ment and of the buildings. In this manner the marble mouths of the vaulted reservoirs or cisterns are frequently brought to light ; St. John's Egypt, vol. i. 8 : and they invariably exhibit traces of the ropes used for raising the water. Grooves are found worn in them, (by the ropes) to the depth of two inches, and such grooves are often numerous in each curb or mouth. Dry wells are built over some of these, and continued to the level of the present streets. Through them the inhabitants still draw water from the ancient reservoirs ; and in the same manner as it was raised from them when the Ptolemies ruled over the land. A person in raising the bucket, stands at a short distance from the curb or mouth, and pulls the rope horizontally, or nearly so, towards him. In this way, the rope rubs against the top and inside of the curb, and in time wears deep grooves in it, such as are found in the ancient ones just mentioned. Sometimes, in order to avoid the friction, and consequent loss of power and wear of the ropes, the person drawing would stand on the edge of the curb, so as to keep the cord clear; but the practice is too perilous ever to have been general. It is, however, practised occasionally by the Hindoos. El Makin, the Arabian historian, says that Moclach, the Vizier of Rhadi, who was deprived of his right hand and his tongue, and was confined in a lower room of the palace, where was a well ; and having no person to attend him, he drew water for himself, pulling the rope with his left hand, and stopping it with his teeth, till the bucket came within his reach." This was in the tenth century. Martigny's History of the Arabians, vol. iv. 7. The, wells on the road to Gaza, noticed by Mr. Stephens, had their upper surfaces formed of marble, which he observes had many grooves cut in it, " apparently being worn by the long continued use of ropes in drawing water." Incidents of Travel, vol. ii. 102. That the same mode of raising it was adopted in the public wells of the ancient cities of Greece and Rome, is evident from those of Herculaneum and Pompeii ; and from discoveries made in the latter city, it is obvious that it was practised in obtaining water from the wells and cisterns of private houses. This is a very interesting fact in connection with our subject, as it shows conclusively that the pump, if used at all by the Ro- mans in their private houses, it was only to a very limited extent. In 1834, besides theatres, baths, temples and other public buildings, eighty houses had been disinterred. These were found to be almost uniformly provided with cisterns, built under ground and cemented, for the collection of rain-water. Each of these has an opening, enclosed in a curb, through which the water was drawn up. These are generally formed of a white calcareous stone, on which are to be seen deep channels, (Pompeii, vol. i. 88,) like those on the mouths of the Alexandrian cisterns, and produced from the same cause — the friction of the ropes used in drawing the water. The hypaathrum, says Sir William Gell, in his description of the house of the Dioscuri, in this case served as a compluvium ; receiving the water which fell from the roof, and transmitting it to a reservoir below, to which there is a marble mouth or puteal, exhibiting the traces of long use, in the furrows worn by the ropes, by which the water was drawn up. Pompei- ana, vol. ii, 27. The great variety of 'buildings to which wells and cisterns having their curbs thus worn were attached, show that this mode of raising water was nearly universal in Pompeii. The simple cord and bucket was equally used in the palace of the qusestor, and the humble dwelling of the private citizen. It was by them, the priests drew water for the uses of the temples, and mechanics for various purposes in the arts. Bakers thus 56 Cord and Bucket. [Book I. raised water for their kneading-troughs, from cisterns or wells under th*» floor of their shops. Three bakers' shops, at least, have been found, and all of them in a tolerable state of preservation : their mills, ovens, knead- ing troughs, flour, loaves of bread, (with their quality, or the bakers' names stamped on them,) leaven, vessels for containing water, and their re- servoirs of the latter, Src. havo been discovered, so as to leave almost nothing wanting to perfect our knowledge of this art among the Romans. It is probable that wells were not infrequent in the interior of the houses in Pompeii, for another one was discovered in the house of a medical man, as presumed from cliirurgical instruments found in it.a The custom of Roman bakers having wells or cisterns within their houses, continued to modern times. When the Royal Academy of Sci- ences of France, undertook in the last century, the noble task of pub- lishing a detailed account of all the useful arts, with a view to their uni- versal diffusion and perpetuity — the baker is represented drawing water from a well, under the floor of his shop, and in a manner analagous to that practised by his predecessors of Pompeii.b London bakers also had wells in their cellars, for the same purpose, and probably still have them to some extent. The inhabitants of the city of Aleppo, the metropolis of Syria, drew water from their cisterns or subterraneous reservoirs, and also from their wells, with which ' almost every house'* was provided, with a cord and bucket, in the same manner as the Egyptians of Alexandria ; and so do the inhabitants of Soar, which occupies the site of ancient Tyre, a town which contained in 1816, according to Mr. Buckingham, eight hundred stone built houses, most of which, he observes, had wells. Ancient Car- thage was built like Alexandria, upon cisterns — a common practice of old. The modern inhabitants of Arzew, the ancient Arsenaria, as observed by Dr. Shaw in his Travels, dwell in the old cisterns, as in so many ho- vels; the water from which, was doubtless drawn in former times, by the simple cord and bucket — the universal implements still used throughout Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Persia, Hindostan, and generally through all the east. This primeval device for raising water, has been used in all ages, and will doubtless continue to be so used, to the end of time. An interesting circumstance is recorded, respecting an individual, who, from his occupation in ancient Athens, was named the ' Well-Drawer,' which may here be noticed. This was Cleanthes, a native of Lydia, who went to Athens as a wrestler, about 300 B. C. and acquiring a taste for philosophy there, determined to place himself under the tuition of some eminent philosopher, although he possessed no more than four drachma, or sixty-two cents ! He became a disciple of Zeno, and that he might have leisure to attend the schools of philosophy in the day-time, he drew water by night, as a common laborer in the public gardens. For several years he was so very poor, that he wrote the heads of his master's lectures, on bones and shells, for want of money to buy better materials : at last, some Athe- nian citizens observing, that though he appeared strong and healthy, he had no visible means of subsistence, summoned him before the Areopagus, according to a law borrowed from the Egyptians, to give an account of his manner of living. Upon this, he produced the gardener for whom he drew water, and a woman for whom he ground meal, as witnesses to prove that he subsisted by the labor of his hands. The judges, we are a Lardner's Arts, &c. i, 268. b Descriptions des Arts et Metiers. Paris, 1761. Art. du BouUmger. Pianche 5. cRu8selTs History of Aleppo, p. 7. Chap. 8.] Cistern Pole. told, were so much struck with admiration of his conduct, that they or- dered ten mince, [one hundred and sixty dollars] to be paid him out of the public treasury. The conduct of Cleanthes explains the secret of the great celebrity of many ancient philosophers, and shows the only means by which eminence in any department of human knowledge can be acquired : viz. by industry and perseverance. Besides his poverty, which of itself was sufficient to paralyze the efforts of most men, he was so singularly dull in apprehen- sion, that his fellow disciples used to call him the ass ; but resolution and application raised him above them all, made him a complete master of the stoic philosophy, and qualified him as successor of the illustrious Zeno. Democritus beautifully expressed the same sentiment, by representing Truth as hid in the bottom of a well ; to intimate the difficulty with which she is found. Analogous to the conduct of Cleanthes, Was that of Plautus, the poet, who being reduced from competence to the meanest poverty, hired him- self to a baker as a common laborer, and while employed in grinding corn, exercised his mind in study. The same may be remarked of Ascle- piades and Menedemus, two Grecian philosophers, who were both so poor, that at one period, they hired themselves as Iri/Mayer 's laborers, and were employed in carrying mortar to the tops of buildings. Ascle- piades, was not ashamed to be seen thus engaged,* but his companion "hid himself if he saw any one passing by." Atkenceus, says they were at one time summoned, like Cleanthes, before the Areopagites, to account for their manner of living — when they requested a miDer to be sent for, who testified that " they came every night to his mill, where they labored and gained two drachma." No. 8, in the last engraving, represents a modern Greek female drawing water. It is from a sketch of Capo D'Istrias' house. See the Westminster Review for September, 1838. No. 10. Cistern Pole. CISTERN POLE. This simple implement, may be thought too in- significant to deserve a particular notice, but as it is extensively used in our rain-water cisterns, and is no modern device, we are unwilling to pass it. It was known to the Romans. Pliny expressly mentions it, when speaking of various modes of watering gardens. He says water is drawn from a well or tank, " by plain poles, hooks and buckets," B. xix, 4 ; and that it was a domestic implement in old times as at present, in raising water from cisterns, is proved by the discovery of some of the hooks at Pompeii. Lard. Arts, &c. i, 205. Having mentioned the rain water cisterns of the Romans, it may be observed, that they were as common in Pompeii as they are in this city, every house having been furnished with one. As Pliny's account of these cisterns may bo useful to some mechanics, especially masons, we shall make no apology for inserting it. " The walls were lined with strong cement, formed of five parts of sharp sand, and two of quicklime mixed with flints ; the bottom being paved with 8 58 The Pulley. [Book I the same, and well beaten with an iron rammer." B. xxxvi, 23. Holland's Trans. The composition of this cement, differs from that which Dr. Shaw says has been used in modern times in the east ; and which he thinks is the same as that of the ancients. He says the cisterns which were built by Sultan ben Eglib, in several parts of the kingdom of Tunis, are equal in solidity with the famous ones at Carthage, continuing to this day (unless where they been designedly broken,) as firm and compact, as if they were just finished. The composition is made in this manner: they take two parts of wood ashes, three of lime, and one of fine sand, which after being well sifted and mixed together, they beat for three days and nights incessantly with wooden mallets, sprinkling them alter- nately and at proper times, with a little oil and water, till they become of a due consistence. This composition is chiefly used in their arches, cisterns and terraces. But the pipes of their aqueducts, are joined by beating tow and lime together, with oil only, without any mixture of water. Both these compositions quickly assume the hardness of stone, and suffer no water to pervade them. Trav. 286. If the Romans "wished to have water perfectly pure, they made two and sometimes three cisterns, at different levels ; so that the water suc- cessively deposited the impurities with which it might be charged. From this, we see that the recent introduction of two cisterns for the same purpose, in some- of our best houses, is a pretty old contrivance. It in fact dates far beyond the Roman era. The famous cisterns of So- lomon are examples of it. Rain-water was frequently boiled by the Ro- mans before they used it. Pliny xxxi, 3. This was also an ancient prac- tice among older nations. Herodotus, says the water of the Choaspes, which was drunk by the Persian kings, was previously boiled, and kept in vessels of silver. B. i, 188. CHAPTER IX. The Pulley: Its origin unknown — Used in the erection of ancient buildings and in ships — Ancient one found in Egypt — Probably first used to raise water — Not extensively used in ancient Grecian wells : Cause of this — Used in Mecca and Japan — Led to the employment of animals to raise water — Simple mode of adapting them to this purpose, in the east. Pulley and two buckets : Used by the Anglo Saxous, Nor- mans, &c. — Italian mode of raising water to upper floors — Desagulier's mode — Self-acting, or gaining and losing buckets— Marquis of Worcester— Heron of Alexandria— Robert Fludd— Lever bucket engine — Bucket of Bologna — Materials of ancient buckets. PULLEY AND SINGLE BUCKET. WE now come to the period when some of the simple machines, or mechanical powers, as they are improperly named, were applied to raise water. When this first took place, is unknown : That it was at an early stage in the progress of the arts, few persons will doubt ; but the time is as uncertain, as that of the invention of those admirable contrivances for transmitting and modifying forces. It was among the devices b;y which the famous structures of antiquity were raised; and Egyptian en- gineers under the Pharaohs, were undoubtedly acquainted with all the combinations of it now known. Had Vitruvius neither described it, nor mentioned its applications, a circumstance which occurred at the close of Cleopatra's life, wquld have sufficiently proved its general use, in the erection of elevated buildings under the Ptolemies. The Egyptian queen, Chap. 9.] Pulley and Single Bucket. 59 to avoid falling into the hands of Octavius, took refuge in a very high tower, accessible only from above. Into this, she and her two maids, drew up Antony, (who had given himself a fatal wound,) by means of ropes and pullies, which happened to be there, for the purpose of raising stones to the top of the building. But the pulley was an essential re- quisite in the sailing vessels of Egypt, India and China, in the remotest ages. Neither trading ships, nor the war fleets of Sesostris, or previous warriors, could have traversed the Indian ocean without this appendage to raise and lower the sails, or quickly to regulate their movements by hal- liards. The ancient Egyptians, says Mr. Wilkinson, " were not ignorant of the pulley." The remains of one have actually been disinterred, and are now preserved in the museum of Leyden. The sides are of athul or tamarisk wood, the roller of fir: part of the rope made of leef or fibres of the date tree, was found at the same time. This relic of former times, is supposed to have been used in drawing water from a well. Its date is uncertain. There are reasons which render it probable that the single pulley, was devised to raise water and earth from wells, and probability is all that can ever be attained with regard to its origin. But may not the pulley have been known before wells ] We think not, and for the following reasons : 1. Most barbarous people have been found in possession of some of the latter, but not of the former ; and in the infancy of the arts, man has in all ages, had recourse to the same expedients, and in the same order. 2. Wells are not only of the highest antiquity, but they are the only known works of man in early times, in which the pulley could have been re- quired or applied. 3. The importance of water in those parts of Asia where the former generations of men dwelt, must have urged them at an early period to facilitate by the pulley, the labor of raising it. That it preceded the invention of ships, and the erection of lofty buildings of stone, is all but certain ; but for what purpose, except for raising water, the pul- ley could have previously been required, it would be difficult to divine. It seems to have been the first addition made to those primitive imple- ments, the cord and bucket ; and when once adopted, it naturally led, as we shall find in the sequel, to the most valuable machine which the an- cients employed. By it the friction of the rope in rubbing against the curb, and the consequent loss of a portion of the power expended in raising the water, were avoided, and by it also a beneficial change in the direction of the power, was attained : instead of being exerted in an ascending direction, as in Nos. 8 and 9, it is applied more conveniently and efficiently in a descending one, as in the figure. Notwithstanding the obvious advantages of using the pulley, it would appear that it was not exten- sively used in the public wells of the ancients, ex- cept in those from which the water was raised by oxen. No example of its use has occurred in the No. 11. Puiie^and Bucket, wells of Herculaneum or Pompeii. Nor does it appear to have been employed to any great extent by the Greeks ; for with them, a vessel by which to draw water, was as necessary a utensil to their mendicants, as to the modern pilgrims and fa- kirs of Asia. The poorest of beggars, Aristophanes' Teleplieus, had a staff, a broken cup, and a bucket, although it leaked. This custom there- fore of carrying a vessel, and cord to draw water, shows that no per- manent one was attached to their public wells, which would have been 60 Pulley and Bucket. [Book I. the case had the pulley been used. If such had been the custom, nei- ther the mendicant Telepheus, nor Diogenes the philosopher, would have carried about with them, vessels for the purpose. It is not easy to account for the partial rejection of the pulley by the Greeks in raising water, when its introduction would have materially di minished human labor. It certainly did not arise from ignorance of its advantages, as their constant application of it to other purposes, attests ; and there is reason to believe, they adopted it to some extent in raising water from the holds of their ships, in common with the maritime people of Asia. It was indeed used in some of their wells,a but only to a limi- ted extent. The principal reason for not employing it in public wells, was probably this — With it, a single person only could draw water at a time, while without it, numbers could lower and raise their vessels simulta- neously, without interfering with each other In the former case, alter- cations would be frequent and unavoidable ; and the inconvenience of numbers of people waiting for water in warm climates a serious evil. The rich, and those who had servants would always procure it, while the poor and such as had no leisure, would obtain it with difficulty. The large di- ameter of their wells and those of other nations, it would seem, was solely designed to accommodate several people at the same time. These rea- sons it is admitted, do not apply to the private wells and cisterns of the Greeks and Romans, in which the pulley might have been used ; but those people followed the practice of older nations, and from the great number of their slaves, (who drew the water) they had no inducement or disposition to lessen their labor. A bucket suspended over a pulley, is still extensively used in raising water from wells throughout the world. The Arabians use it at the well Zemzem ; the mouth of which, is " surrounded by a brim of fine white marble five feet high, and ten feet in diameter ; upon this the persons stand, who draw water in leathern buckets, attached to pulleys, an iron railing being so placed as to prevent their falling in."b Apparatus precisely similar to the figure in No. 11, are used by the Ja- panese and other Asiatics. Montanus' Japan. 294. The pulley has but recently given place to pumps, in workshops and dwellings, and in these only to a limited extent — being confined chiefly to a few cities in the United States and Europe. In France and England, it was a common appendage to wells in the interior of houses, during the last century ; and in such cases it is still extensively used throughout Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe. It is very common in this country, and also in South America. But the grand advantage of the pulley in the early ages was this ; — by it the vertical direction in which men exerted their strength, could be di- rectly changed into a horizontal one, by which change, animals could be employed in place of men. The wells of Asia, frequently varying from two to three, and even four hundred feet in depth, obviously required more than one person to raise the contents of an ordinary sized vessel : and where numbers of people depended on such wells, not merely to sup- ply their domestic wants, but for the purposes of irrigation, the substi- tution of animals in place of men, to raise water, became a matter almost of necessity, and was certainly adopted at a very early period. In em- ploying an ox for this purpose, the simplest way, and one which deviated the least from their accustomed method, was merely to attach the end of the rope to the yoke, after passing it over a pulley fixed sufficiently aLardner's Arts, &c i, 138. bCrichton's Arabia, ii, 219. Chap. 9] Application of Animals to Raise Water. 61 high above the mouth of the well, and then driving the animal in a direct line from it, and to a distance equal to its depth, when the bucket charged with the liquid would be raised from the bottom. This, the most direct and efficient, was, (it is believed,) the identical mode adopted, and like other devices of the ancients, it is still continued by their descendants in Africa and Asia. Its value in the estimation of the moderns, may be learned from the fact, that it is adopted in this and other cities for raising coals, &c. from the holds of ships ; for which and similar purposes, it has been in use for ages in Europe. It has also been used to work pumps, the further end of the rope being attached to a heavy piston working In a very long chamber or cylinder. No. 12. Ancient and Modern method of raising water in Asia. This was probably one of the first operations, and certainly one of the most obvious, where human labor was superseded by that of animals, and in accomplishing it, the pulley itself was perhaps discovered. This mode is common in Egypt, Arabia, India — through all Hindostan, and various other parts of the east. Mr. Elphinstone mentions a large well under the walls of the fort at Bikaneer, from fifteen to twenty-two feet in diameter, and three hundred feet deep. In this well four large buckets are used, each thus drawn up by &pair of oxen, and all worked at the same time. When any one of them was let down, "its striking the water, made a noise like a great gun." But simple as this mode of raising water by animal* is, it is capable of an improvement equally simple, though not perhaps ob- vious to general readers. It was not however left to modern mechanicians to discover, but is one among hundreds of ancient devices, whose origin is lost in the remoteness of time. It is this — Instead of the animal receding from the well on level ground, it is made to descend an inclined plane, so that the weight of its body contributes towards raising the load. This is characteristic of Asiatic devices. At a very early period, the principle of combining the weight of men and animals with their muscular energy, in propelling machines, was adopted. We shall meet with other exam- ples of it. PULLEY AND TWO BUCKETS. The addition of another bucket, so as to have one at each end of the rope, was the next step in the progress of improvement; and although so simple a device may appear too obvious to have remained long unper- ceived, and one which required no stretch of intellect to accomplish, it was one of no small importance, since it effected what is seldom witnessed in practical mechanics — a saving both of time and labor. Thus, by it, the empty vessel descended and became filled, as the other was elevated, 62 and Two Buckets. [Book I. (without the expenditure of any additional time and labor to lower it, as with the single bucket,) while its weight in descending, contributed towards raising the charged one. These advantages were not the only results of the simple addition of another bucket; though they were probably all that were anticipated by the author at the time. It really imparted a new feature to the apparatus, and one which naturally led to the development of that great machine, in which terminated all the improvements of the older mechanics on the primitive cord and bucket — and to which, modern ingenuity has added — nothing — viz: THE ENDLESS CHAIN OF POTS — indeed nothing more was then wanting, but to unite the two ends of the rope together, and attach a number of vessels to it, at equal distances from each other, through the whole of its length, and the machine just named was all but complete. No. 13. Ancient. [From sepulchral monuments.] No. 14. Modern. The Anglo Saxons used two buckets hooped with iron, one at each end of a chain which passed over a pulley .a And in the old Norman castles, water was raised by the same means. In one of the keeps or towers, still remaining, which was built by Gundulph, bishop of Rochester, in the reigns of the Conqueror and William Rufus, the mode of elevating the water is obvious. " For water, there was a well in the very middle of the partition wall: it was also made to go through the whole wall, from the bottom of the tower up to the very leads, (i. e. the roof ) and on every floor were small arches in the wall, forming a communication between the pipe of the wall, and the several apartments, so that by a pulley, water was communicated every where." And in Newcastle, a similar tower exhibits the same device for obtaining the water: "a remarkable pillar from which arches branched out very beautifully on each side, in- closed a pipe, (that is, the continuation of the well,) which conducted water from the well."b It appears to have been, in the middle ages, the uniform practice to enclose wells within the walls of towers, that in case of sieges, the water might not be cut off. It was the same in early Rome : the capitol was supplied by a deep well at the foot of the Tar- peian Rock, into which buckets were lowered through an artificial groove or passage made in the rock.c The double bucket is still used in inns in Spain. See a figure in Sat. Mag. Vol. vii, 58. A simple mode is practised in Italy, by which a person in the upper story of a house, and at some distance from the well or cistern, (which is ge- nerally in the court yard,) raises water without being obliged to descend. One end of a strong iron rod or wire, is fixed to the house above the window of an upper landing or passage, and the other end in the ground, •Encyc. Antiq. 524. blbid, 82. c Gell's Topography of Rome, ii, 203. Chap. 9.] Raising Water to Upper Floors. 63 on the farther side of the well and in a line with its centre as in No. 15. A ring which slides easily over the wire is secured to the handle of the bucket, to which a cord is also attached and passes over a pulley fixed above the window. Thus when the cord is slackened, the bucket de- scends along the wire into the water, and when filled is drawn up by a per- son at the window. (Kitchens in the houses of Italy, like those of London and Paris are often on the upper floors.) *' This mode of raising water to the up- per stories of houses is practised in Ve- nice and some other towns in Italy."* We are not acquainted with the origin of this device. From the circumstance of the ancient, (as well as the modern) in habitants of Asia, Greece, Italy, &c. having had jets d'eau and tanks of wa- ter in the centre of their court-yards, it is possible that this mode of raising water to the upper floors of dwellings, may be of ancient date. It was in use in the 16th century, and is described in Serviere's collection, from which the figure is taken.b In the same work are devices for raising water in buckets to the tops of buildings by pulleys, ropes, No. 15. *^mg,*ggr~»' .« «>.e&c. i£vmewhat similar manner. CHAPTER XIII. THESWAPE: Used in modern and ancient Egypt — Represented in sculptures at Thebes — Alluded to by Herodotus and Marcellus — Described by Pliny — Picotah of India; agility of the Hindoos in working it Chinese Swape — Similar to the machines employed in erecting the pyramids — The Swape, seen in Paradise by Mahomet — Figure of one near the city of Magnesia — Anglo Saxon Swape — Formerly used in English manufactories — Figures from the Nuremburgh Chronicle, Munster's Cosmography, and Bes- son's Theatre des Instrumens. The Swape common in North and South America — Examples of its use in watering gardens — Figures of it, the oldest representations of any hydraulic machine — Mechanical speculations of Ecclesiastics: Wilkins' projects for aerial navigation — Mechanical and theological pur- suits combined in the middle ages — Gerbert — Dunstan — Bishops famous as Castle architects — Androides — Roode of grace — Shrine of Becket — Speaking images — Chemical deceptions — Illuminated manuscript*. OF machines for raising water, the Swape has been more extensively used in all ages, and by all nations, than any other. Like most im- plements for the same purpose, its application is confined within certain limits ; but these are such as to render it of general utility. The mental or swinging basket, and the jantu, raise the liquid from two to three feet only at a lift, while the swape elevates it from five to fifteen, and in some cases still higher. It is not, however, well adapted for greater eleva- tions; a circumstance which accounts for its not having been much used in the wells of ancient cities — their depth rendered it inapplicable, as the generality of ours do at this day. In Egypt, this machine is named the Shadoof, and in no country has it been more extensively employed. In modern days, more persons are there engaged in raising water by it and the mental, than are to be found in any other class of Egyptian laborers. They raise the liquid at each lift about seven feet, and where it is re- quired higher, series of swapes are placed at proper distances above each other, in a similar manner as the Hindoos arrange the jantu, and as shown in the figure, (No. 35.) The lowermost laborer empties his vessel into a cavity or basin formed in the rock, or in soil rendered imper- vious to water, three or four feet above him, and into whicK the next one plunges his bucket, who raises it into another, and so on till it reaches the required elevation. M. Jomard,* says it is not uncommon to see from thirty to fifty shadoofs at one place, raising water one above another. At Esne, he saw twenty-seven Arabs on one tier of stages, working fourteen 1G ande Description E. M. Tom. ii. Memoirs, Part 2, p. 780. Chap. 13.] Ancient Egyptian Swape. 95 double swapes, i. e. two on each frame, the bucket of one descending as the other rises. They were relieved every hour, so that fifty-four men were required to keep the machines constantly in motion. The overseer or task-master measured the time by the sun, and sometimes by a simple clepsydra or water-clock. No. 35. Modern Egyptians using the Swape. It is impossible to pass up the Nile in certain states of the river, without being surprised at the myriads of these levers, and at their unceasing move- ments ; for by relays of men, they are often worked without intermission, both night and day. In Upper Egypt especially, where from the elevation of the banks they are more necessary, and of course more numerous, the spectacle is animating in a high degree, and cannot but recall to reflecting minds similar scenes in the very same places in past ages, when the popu- lation was greatly more dense than at present, and the country furnished grain for surrounding nations. In some parts, the banks appear alive with men raising water by swapes and the effect is rendered still more impress- ive by the songs and measured chantings of the laborers, and the incessant groans and creakings of the machines themselves. To the ancient custom of singing while raising water, there is an evident allusion in Isaiah, xii, 3 : Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. The Arabs have a tradition that the shadoof was used in the times of the Pharaohs, and a proof that such was the fact, has recently been furnished by Mr. Wilkinson, (Vol. ii, 5,) who found the remains of one in an ancient tomb at Thebes ; in ad- dition to which they are repre- sented in sculptures which date from 1532 to 1550 JB. C. a peri- od extending beyond the Exo- dus. No. 36 represents it as used at that remote period for the irrigation of land. No. 36. An Egyptian in the time of Moses raising water by the swape. From sculptures at Thebes. % Swape used by the Romans. [Book I. It appears to have formed one of a series, designed to raise water over the elevation feebly portrayed in the back ground, in precisely the same wav that is now common in Egypt and in the east, and as shown in No. 35. The remark of a traveler that a Chinese seemed to him " an antediluvian renewed," might with equal propriety, be applied to a modern Arab raising water by this implement from the Nile ; and the figure, No. 36, might be taken as a probably correct representation of an antediluvian laborer engaged in the same employment. On comparing the last two cuts, the former having been sketched by Mr. Wilkinson, from life, but three years ago ; and the latter copied from sculptures that have been executed upwards of three thousand years, we see at once, that the swape has undergone as little change in Egypt, since the times of the Pharaohs, as the costume, if such it may be called, of the laborers themselves; in oth- er words both remain the same. The discovery of this implement among the sculptures of ancient Egypt tends to corroborate our views respecting the antiquity of other machines for the same purpose, and which like it are still in common use in the east. It also admonishes us not to reject as im- probable or fabulous, current oriental traditions ; since they are, as in the case of this machine, often, if not generally, founded in truth. The swape seems to be alluded to by Herodotus, vi, 119, as used iu Persia in his time, fie observes that Darius, the father of Xerxes, sent some captives to a certain distance from Susa, and forty furlongs from a well, the contents of which were " drawn up with an engine, to which a kind of bucket is suspended, made of half a skin ; it is then poured into one cistern and afterwards removed into a second." This appears to have been the shadoof of the Egyptians, as figured in No. 35, to which there is probably a reference also in Clio, 193, where he says the Assyri- ans irrigated their lands from the Euphrates " by -manual labor and by hydraulic engines" Aristotle mentions the swape as in common use among the Greeks.* Dr. Clarke says some of the wells of Greece were not deep, and pulleys were not used, only buckets with ropes of twisted herbs, and sometimes the water was raised by a ' huge lever, great stones being a counterpoise to the other end.' A circumstance connected with the overthrow of the Syracusans, and the death of Archimedes, in which the swape is referred to, may here be noticed. When the Roman vessels, at the siege of Syracuse were grappled by hooks and elevated in the air, by levers that projected over the walls of the city, their resemblance to vessels of water raised by the swape, was so striking, that Marcellus was wont to say, " Archimedes used his ships to draw water with."b This remark of the Roman general clearly shows that the swape was very fa- miliar to him and to his countrymen. But we are not left to circumstan- ces like this to infer its use among the Romans. Pliny expressly men- tions it among machines for raising water. As the passage is highly interesting, and as we shall have occasion to refer to it hereafter, it may as well be inserted here. It is in the fourth Chapter of the Nineteenth Book, " On Gardens :" " above all things there should be water at command, (if possible a river or brook running through it, but if n/either can be ob- tained,) then they are to be watered with pit water, fed with springs ; either draivn up by plain poles, hooks, and buckets ; or forced by pumps and such like, going with the strength of wind enclosed, or else weighed up with swipes and cranes" Holland's Trans. The Swape is extensively used over all Hindostan. " The peasants, morning and evening draw water out of wells by buffaloes or oxen, or * Bishop Wilkins on the lever. b Plutarch's life of Marcellus, Wrangham's notes. Chap. 13.] The Picotah. 97 else by a thwart post, poised with a sufficient weight at the extremity laid over one fixed in the earth ; the water is drawn by a bucket of goat's skin."a In some districts, the Hindoos have a mode of working the Swape, which, so far as we know, is peculiar to themselves. In Patna it is common, and the machine when thus propelled, is named the Picotah. " Near the well or tank, a piece of wood is fixed, forked at the top ; in this fork another piece of wood is fixed to form a swape, which is formed by a peg, and steps cut out at the bottom,, that the person who works the ma- chine may easily get up and down. Commonly, the lower part of the swape is the trunk of a tree; to the upper end is fixed a pole, at the end of which hangs a leather bucket. A man gets up the steps to the top of the swape, and sup- ports himself by a bamboo screen erected by the sides of the ma- chine." He plunges the bucket into the water, and draws it up by his weight ; while another person stands ready to empty it. In the volume of plates to the Paris edi- tion, 1806, of Sonnerat's Voyages, the machine is represented rather different from the above. The la- borer alternately steps on and off the swape, from a ladder or stage of bamboos erected on one side of it See plate 23, Sonnerat. The apparatus and mode of working it, is more fully described in the following extract from ' Shoberl's Hindostan in Miniature.' *' By the side of the well a forked piece of wood, or even a stone, eight or ten feet high is fixed upright. In the fork, is fastened by means of a peg, a beam three times as long, which gradually tapers, and is furnished with steps like those of a ladder. To the extremity of this long beam, which is ca- pable of moving up and down, is attached a pole, to the end of which is suspended a large leather bucket. The other end being the heaviest, when the machine is left to itself, the bucket hangs in the air at the height of twenty feet ; but to make it descend, one man, and sometimes two, mount to the middle of the beam, and as they approach the bucket, it sinks to the bottom of the well, and fills itself with water. The men then move back to the opposite end, the bucket is raised, and another man empties it into a basin. This operation is performed with such celerity that the water never ceases running, and you can scarcely see the man moving along his beam ; yet he is sometimes at the height of twenty feet, at others, touching the ground ; and such is his confidence, that he laughs, sings, smokes, and eats in this apparently ticklish situation." Vol. V, p. 22, 24. This mode of applying human effort, was early adopted in the working of pumps — a piston rod being attached to each end of the vibrating beam. Dr. Lardner, has inserted a figure of it in his popular No. 37. Picotah of Hindostan. Fryer's Travels in India, 187. 13 iTY - 98 The Swape in Arabia. [Book L treatise on Pneumatics. It is figured in most of the old authors, and was most likely, copied from the Picotah, and other oriental machines, which have been propelled in a similar manner from very remote times. See Gregory's Mechan. Vol. ii, 312. Ed. 1815. The Swape is one of the ancient and modern implements of China, where it is used, as in Egypt and India, for the irrigation of land. It is frequently made to turn in a socket, (or the post itself moves round,) in addition to the ordinary vibratory motion. In several situations, this is a decided improvement, as the vessel of water when raised above the edge of a tank or river, can, if desirable, be swung round to any part of the circle which it describes. Sir George Staunton, has given a figure of it, which Mr. Davis has copied into his popular work on the Chinese. When thus constructed, it is according to Goguet, (Tom. iii, Origine des Loix,) identical with the engines mentioned by Herodotus, B. ii, 125, as em- ployed in the erection of the Egyptian pyramids; these, he supposes were portable swapes, or levers of the first order, with a rotary movement like those of the Chinese. A number of these being placed on the lowest tier of stones which formed the basis of the pyramids, were used to raise those which form the second tier ; after which, other swapes were placed on the latter and materials raised by them for the third range, and in like manner to the top. This was the process which Herodotus says was adopted. M. Goguet, supposes that two swapes were employed in raising every stone, one at each end, and that the levers were depressed by a number of men laying hold of short ropes attached to them for that purpose. This mode appears to accord with the meagre description of the machines used in the erection of the pyramids, which the father of history has given. It has already been observed, that the engines employed by Archimedes to destroy the Roman ships in the harbor of Syracuse, were so analagous to the swape, as to elicit from Marcellus, an observation to that effect. In fact, machines similar to it, were used by ancient engineers both for attacking and defending cities. Vegetius, says they were used to raise soldiers to the tops of walls, &c. In the oldest translation of his work, (Erffurt, 1511,) there is a figure of it, which is identical with the Chinese swape, and with that which Goguet supposes was used by the old engineers of Egypt. Bar- baro, in his edition of Vitruvius, also figures it. In Rollin's 'Arts and Sciences of the Ancients,' are several examples and figures of it, applied to the purposes of war ; and among others to the destruction of the Ro- man vessels before Syracuse. A story in the ' Hegiat al Megiales' shews how common it was in Arabia in the seventh and preceding centuries. Mahomet in one of his visions of paradise, "saw a machine much used in the Levant for drawing water out of wells, called by the Latins Tollens, and consisting of a long lever fixed on a post, [i.e. the swape.] Enquiring to whom it belonged, he was told it was Abougehel's, (the bitterest enemy to him and his religion.) Surprised at this, he exclaimed, ' what has Abougehel to do with paradise, he is never to enter there !' Shortly after, he understood the drift of the vision, for the son of his enemy became a Mussulman, upon which he ex- claimed ' Abougehel was the swape, by which God drew up his son from the bottom of the pit of infidelity.' " It is used by the Japanese ; and as fi- gured by Montanus, the bucket is raised by pulling down the opposite end of the lever by means of cords attached to it. In Fisher's " Constantinople, and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia." Lon. 1839, is a beautiful view of the city of Magnesia near Mount Sipylus, in Asia Minor, a city founded by Tantalus, whose fabled punish- Chap. 13.] Anglo Saxon Swape. 99 ment has rendered his name notorious. In the foreground is represented the following figure of the swape, a machine which the writer observes, " forms a conspicuous object in every landscape in the east. One is seen erected in every garden, and as irrigation is constantly required in an arid soil, it is always in mo- tion, and its dull and drowsy creaking is the sound inces- santly heard by all travelers." In this figure we behold not merely a sketch of mo- dern Asiatic manners ; but - one, which as regards rais- ing of water j the machine by which it is effected ; animals around it; costume of the individuals ; and por- traiture of rural life, — has remained unchanged from times that reach back to the (S infancy of our race, and of which history has preserved no records. [For this interesting cut, and for No. 35 also, I am in- debted to my friend WILLIAM EVERDELL, Esq. who, be- sides other contributions to this work, undertook the task, to him a novel one, of engraving them.] The swape has probably been in continual use in Great Britain, from the period of its subjugation by the Romans, if not before. It is there known under the various names of ' Swape' ' Sweep,' and in old authors, * Swipe? A figure of it, as used by the Anglo-Saxons, is here inserted, from Vol. i, of the ' Pictorial History of England,' copied from an ancient ma- nuscript in the British Museum. The costume of the female, her masculine figure, the shingled well, and form of the vase or pitcher, are interesting, as indicative of manners and customs, &c. of former ages. The arm of the lever to which the bucket is suspended, appears extremely short, but this is to be attri- buted to its defective representation. The following summary of ancient Brit-' ish devices is from Fosbroke's Encyclo- pedia of Antiquities. " The Anglo- Saxons had a wheel for drawing water from wells. They were common annexations to houses. Jlings were fixed to the chains of wells. We find a beam on a pivot, with a weight at one end for raising water. Wheels and coverings. A lever, the fulcrum of which was a kind of gallows over the well. Two No. 38. Swape In Asia Minor. No. 39. Anglo Saxon Swape. 100 Old German Swapes. [Book L buckets one at each end of a chain adapted to a versatile engine called volgolus. Buckets with iron hoops, and drawing water from deep wells as a punishment." The swape appears to have been the principal ma- chine in England for raising water till quite recent times. In the 17th century it was used in manufactories, and is not yet, perhaps, wholly su- perseded by the pump. Bishop Wilkins, in speaking of the lever and its application by Archimedes in destroying the Roman fleet, says, " it was of the same form with that which is commonly used by brewers and dyers for the drawing of water. It consists of two posts, the one fastened perpen- dicularly in the ground, the other being jointed on cross to the top of it." Mathemat. Magic. B. i, Chaps. 4 and 12. This was published in 1638. In 1736, Mr. Ainsworth published his celebrated Latin Dictionary, and un- der the word Rachdmus, ' a truckle or pulley used in drawing up water ;' he adds, " perhaps not unlike the sweep our brewers use :" hence at that time, it continued to be used for raising water and transferring liquids in English breweries and similar establishments, as remarked by Wilkins one hundred years before. In Germany it was frequently, and still is, a prominent object in country towns and villages, as well as in farm yards. In the former it was frequently erected on, or at the end of bridges for the purpose of raising water from rivers and brooks. In the famous Nuremburgh Chronicle it is frequently figured. From a va- riety of different forms, we have selected No. 40, as a specimen. In the Cosmography of Sebastian Munster, 1550, it is represented at page 729, as employed for raising water to supply, by means o.f pipes, a neighboring town. Agricola, in his De Re Metallica, has also figured it. pp. 443 and 458. No. 40. Swape. From the Nuremburgh Chronicle. A. D. 1493. No. 41. Swape from S. Minister's Cosmography. 1550. The Swape was very common in France and the neighboring nations on the European continent, in the last and preceding centuries. It is named bascule in France. The old Dictionnaire de Trevoux, says : Les bascules les plus simple, sont celles qui ne consistent qu'en une piece de bois soutenue d'une autre par le milieu ou autrement, comme d'un essieu, pour etre plus au moins en equilibre. Lorsqu'on pese sur Chap. 13.] Old French Swape. 101 No. 42. Swape from Besson. 1568. un des bouts 1'autre hausse. Ces sortes de bascules sont les plus com- munes; on s'en sert pour dlever des eaux. The last sentence is believed to be applicable to every part of Europe at the present time, perhaps equally so as at any former period. We subjoin a description of one proposed by James Besson, a French mechanician, 270 years ago, by which two buckets, one at each end, may be used. As the vibration of the beam is ingeniously effected by a continuous rotary movement, a figure of it will be acceptable to the intelligent mechanic. The lever is suspended at the centre of its length, on a pin which passes through the lower part of the perpendicular post, the upper end of which is firmly secured to the frame and cross piece. A perpen- dicular shaft is placed immediately under the lower end of the post and in the same vertical line with it. The upper journal of the shaft enters and turns in the end of the post, while its lower one is received into a cavity in the block upon which it rests. This shaft forms the axis of an inverted cone of frame-work — a section of which, resembling an hyperbolic curve, acts as it revolves on the under side of the swape, and imparts to it the required movement. To lessen the friction, two long rollers are fixed to its under side, and upon these only does the curved edge of the cone act. The shaft may of course be turned by any motive power. In the figure, a horizontal water wheel is attached to the shaft, with oblique paddles which receive the impulse of the stream in which they are placed. This device may serve as an example of mechanical tact and resource in the early part of the 16th century, when practical mechanics began to be cul- tivated as a science. The swape is commonly used by the farmers on this continent, in the vicinity of whose dwellings it may be seen, more or less, from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi. In some of the states, it still bears the old English name of the 'sweep' as in Virginia — in others it is named the 'balance pole.' It prevails in Mexico, Central America, Peru, Chili, and generally throughout the southern continent. There is some uncertainty respecting its having been known here before the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century. See remarks on Ancient American Machines in the last chapter of this book. The swape appears to have been used in all times, for watering gardens in the east, as already observed of Asia Minor, it is there seen erected in almost every one. No. 43 represents it employed in the gardens of Egypt during the sojourn of the Israelites in that country. The tree and plant are uniform hieroglyphical representations of gardens. The labourer discharges the contents of his bucket into a wood- en trough or gutter, by which the water is conveyed to the plants ; a mode still followed through all the east. To this application of the swape there is probably a reference in the prediction of Balaam, deliver- ed one hundred years after these figures were sculptured, ' he shall pour 102 Ancient Garden Swape. [Book 1, water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, (Numb, xxiv, 7,) an intimation that the Israelites should possess a country, where this great desideratum should be in comparative abundance, a land " wa- tered as a garden of herbs." The figure may serve also to illustrate the ' gutters and watering troughs' in which Jacob watered the flocks of La- ban, his father in law. Gen. xxx, 38. No. 43. Egyptian Shadoof employed in watering a garden. 1550, B. C. The luxuriance of vegetation in an eastern garden, (when properly water- ed,) the richness of its scenery, the beauty of its foliage and flowers, form one of the most enchanting prospects in nature ; hence it became the most favorite, as it was the most natural, metaphor of human felicity. When the prophets promised prosperity, it was in such language as the following : " Thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not," and " their soul shall be as a watered garden." On the contrary, when the v/icked were denounced, "ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water." The same me- taphor is a frequent one in ancient poets, and in most instances the use of the swape is implied. Thus Homer : As when autumnal Boreas sweeps the sky. And instant blows the watered gardens dry. And Ovid : As in a watered garden's blooming walk. Met. x, 277. Pliny mentions it expressly for the same purpose, and to it Juvenal seems to allude in his third satire : There from the shfdlow well your hand shall pour The stream it loves on every opening flower. This use of the swape is not now confined to the gardens of fallen Asia, Egypt and Greece, but it is employed by the most enlightened nations ; and in London and in Paris, as in Athens and Alexandria, Memphis and Thebes, this primitive implement has not been superseded. In Breton's China, Lon. 1834, the Chinese swape is described ; and the author ob- serves, " it is similar to those which are seen in the market gardens round London:" and in a more recent work, ' Scripture illustrated from Egypt- ian Antiquities,' the author speaking of the Egyptian swape, says, it is the same as used in the gardens of 'Brentford. Of the swape, it may be remarked, that the most ancient portraiture extant, of any hydraulic machine, is a sculptured representation of IT, be- tween three and four thousand yearsold, and even at that remote period Chap. 13.] Garden Swape. 103 it was in all probability a very old affair, and in common use. These sculptures moreover prove, that it has remained in Egypt unaltered in its form, dimensions, mode and material of its construction and methods of us- ing it, during at least thirty-four centuries ! and this, notwithstanding the political convulsions to which that country has ever been subject, since its conquest by Cambyses ; its inhabitants having been successively under the Persian, Grecian, Roman, Saracenic, and Turkish yoke, thus literally fulfilling a prophecy of Ezekiel, that, " there shall be no longer a prince of the land of Egypt," — a descendant of its ancient kings ; yet through all these mighty revolutions that have swept over it like the fatal Simoon, and destroyed every vital principle of its ancient grandeur, this simple machine has past through them all unchanged, and is still applied by the inhabitants to the same purposes, and in precisely the same way, for which it was used by their more enlightened progenitors. We have seen it used by the Greeks and Romans, and we find it still In the possession of their descendants, wherever they dwell, as well as among those of more ancient people, the Hindoos, Arabs, and Chinese. And although we may be unable to keep it constantly in view in Europe, in those ages which immediately followed the fall of the Roman power, when the ferocious tyranny of the Saracens established a despotism over the mind as well as the body ; and by the characteristic zeal of OMAR, entailed ignorance on the future, by consuming the very sources of know- ledge under the baths of Alexandria ; yet, when in the 15th century, the human intellect began to shake off the lethargy, which during the long night of the dark ages had paralyzed its energies, and printing was intro- duced-*-that mighty art which is ordained to sway the destinies of our race forever — among the earliest of printed books, with illustrations, this interesting implement may be found portrayed in vignettes, in views of cities, and of rural life, ; tangible proofs of its universal use throughout Europe at that time, as well as during the preceding ages. Having referred in this and in a preceding chapter, to the ' Mathematical Magic* of Wilkins, we subjoin some remarks on the mechanical specula- tions of that and other old church dignitaries. [These remarks were at first designed for a note, but have been too far extended to be inserted as one.] The former was certainly one of the most ingenious and imaginative of mechanics that ever was made a bishop of, and not a few have worn the mitre. ' The Right Reverend Father in God, John, Lord Bishop of Chester,' (like friars Bacon and Bungey, the Jesuit Kircher, the Abbe Mical, and a host of others,) excelled equally in. mechanical and theologi- cal science ; and at one period of his researches in the former, seemed almost in danger of rendering the latter superfluous: viz. by developing a plan of conveying men to other worlds by machinery ! See his Tract on on the ' Discovery of a New World in the Moon, and the possibility of a passage thither.' Lon. 1638. After removing with a facility truly de- lightful, those objections to such a 'passage* as arise from the 'extreme coldness and thinness of the etherial air,' ' the natural heaviness of a man's body,' and ' the vast distance of that place from us,' and the consequent necessity of rest and provisions during so long a journey, there being, as he observes, 'no inns to entertain passengers, nor any castles in the air to receive poor pilgrims' — he proposes three modes of accomplishing the object. 1. By the application of wings to the body; 'as angels are pic- tured, as Mercury and Daedalus are feigned, and as has been attempted by divers, particularly by a Turk in Constantinople, as Busbequius re- j.04 Mechanical Speculations [Book I lates. 2. By means of birds, for as he quaintly says, " If there be such a great ruck in Madagascar, as Marcus Polus the Venetian mentions, the feathers in whose wings are twelve feet long, which can scoop up a horse and his rider, or an elephant, as our kites do a mouse ; why then, 'tis but teaching one of these to carry a man, and he may ride up thither, as Ganymede did, upon an eagle." 3. Or, "if neither of these ways will serve, yet I do seriously, and upon good ground, affirm it possible to make a flying chariot, in which a man may sit, and give such a motion unto it as shall convey hirn through the air ; and this perhaps might be made large enough to carry diverse men at the same time, together with food for their viaticum, and commodities for traffic." The construction of such a chariot, he says, was 'no difficult matter, if a man had leisure to show more particularly the means of composing it.' It is to be regretted that he did not pretermit some of his labors for that purpose, especially as his project was not merely to skim along the surface of this planet, like mo- dern aeronauts, or ancient navigators creeping along shores — but like ano- ther Columbus, to launch out into the unknown regions of space, in search of other worlds. Had Wilkins been a countryman as well as a contemporary of Galileo, his aerial flights would have been confined to a dungeon, and the wings of his genius would have been effectually clipped with Roman shears. Indeed we must admit that he was the greater sinner of the two ! for Galileo merely taught the absurd doctrine of the sun's stability, and that the earth moved round it, in opposition to the evidence of his senses, to the doctrines of the church, and in flat contradiction of those passages in the Bible, which Bellarmine adduced as proofs indubitable, that the sun ' rises up1 in the east every morning, and * goes down' in the west every night, and that the earth is established and 'cannot be moved.' Whereas the heretical bishop, endeavored to open a way by which men could visit other worlds when they pleased, and that too, without consulting, or so much as saying 'by your leave,' to the successors of St. Peter! The earliest English aeronaut was Elmer, a monk of the llth century. He adapted wings to his hands and feet, and took his flight from a lofty tower. He sustained himself in the air for the space of a furlong, but his career, (like that of Dante in the fifteenth century) terminated unfortu- nately, for by some derangement of his machinery he fell, and both his legs were broken. Dante, after several successful experiments, fell on the roof of a church and broke his thigh. It is a singular fact in the history of the arts, that mechanical skill was in former times intimately connected with theological pursuits, and that some of the cleverest workmen were ecclesiastics, and of the highest grades too ; witness Gerbert, Dunstan, Albertus, and many others. The first was a French mechanician of the 10th century, whose researches led him at that early period, to experiment on steam, and on its application to produce music. He was successively archbishop of Rheims and Ra- venna, and in 999 took his seat in St. Peter's chair, and was announced to the world as Pope Sylvester II. It may now appear strange that monks and friars, abbots, bishops, archbishops and popes, should have been among the chief cultivators of, and most expert manipulators in the arts, and that to them we are greatly indebted for their preservation through the dark ages ; but, in those times, it was so far from being considered derogatory in ecclesiastics to work at ' a trade,' that those who did not, were accounted unworthy members of the church ; hence monks were cooks, carpenters, bakers, farmers, turners, founders, smiths, painters, carvers, copyists, &c. ; all had some occupation, besides the study of their peculiar Chap. 13.j of Ecclesiastics. Wit duties. " In that famous colledg, our monasterie of Bangor, in which there were 2100 Christian philosophers, that served for the profit of the people in Christ, living by the labor of their hands, according to St. Paul's doc- trine."* This was in the 5th century, when Pelagius belonged, to the same monastery. In the 7th, "almost all monks were addicted to manual arts," and according to St. Benedict, such only as lived by their own la- bor, "were truly monks."b "They made and sold their wares to strangers, for the use [benefit] of their monasterie, yet somewhat cheaper than others 6old."c Many of these men naturally became expert workmen, especially in the metals — a branch of the arts that seems to have been a favorite one with them ; hence, the best gold and silver smiths of the times were often found in cloisters ; and the rich ' boles, cups, chalices, basens, lavatories of silver and gold, and other precious furniture' of the churches, were made by the priests themselves : — It may be a question, whether they were not right in thus combining mental and physical employments; as a compound being, manual labor seems necessary to the full development of man's intellect, and to its healthy and vigorous exercise. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury in the 10th century, was skilled in metallurgical operations — he was a working jeweler, and a brass founder. Two large bells for the church at Abingdon were cast by him. He is said to have been the inventor of the Eoiian harp, an instrument whose spontaneous music induced the people at that dark age, to consider him a conjurer — hence the old lines — St. Dunstan's harp, fast by the wall, Upon a pin did hang — a ; The harp itself, with ty and all, Untouched by hand did twang — a. The genius of some led them to cultivate architecture. Cathedrals and other buildings yet extant, attest their skill. Of celebrated architects in the llth century, were Mauritius, bishop of London, and Gundulphus, bishop of Rochester. The latter visited the Holy Land previous to the crusades, and is said to have been one of the greatest builders, and the most eminent castle architect of his age. In the Towers of London and Rochester, he left specimens of his art. At page 62, we referred to the remains of a castle built by him, and to his mode of protecting the well, and raising the water to the different floors. In the 12th century, these reverend artists were numerous. In England, were Roger, bishop of Salisbury, and Ernulf, his successor — Alexander of Lincoln — Henry De Blois of Winchester, and Roger, of York ; all of whom left remarkable proofs of their proficiency as builders. In France, 'in sundry times the ecclesiastics performed carving, smelting, painting, and mosaic.' Leo, bishop of Tours in the 6th century, ' was a great artist, especially in car gentry.' St. Eloy was at first a sadler, then a goldsmith, and at last bishop of Noyan ; he built a monastery near Limoges, but he was most noted for shrines of gold, silver, and precious stones. He died in 668. The church of Notre Dame des Unes, in Flanders, was begun by Pierre, the 7th abbot, and completed in 1262, by Theodoric. ' The whole church was built by the monks themselves, assisted by the lay brothers and their servants.'*1 Luther was accustomed to turning, and kept a lathe in his house, 'in order to gain his livelihood by his hands, if the word of God failed to support him.' * Monastichon Britannicum, Lon. 1655. p. 40. b Ib. 268. ° Ib. 301 dEd. Encyc. Art. Civil Architecture. 14 106 Roode of Grace. [Book I Those in whom the ' organ of constructiveness,' or invention was prom- inent, produced among other curious machinery, speaking heads, images of saints, fyc. These, it is believed, were imitations of similar contrivances in heathen temples. The statue of Serapis moved its eyes and lips. The bird of Memnon flapped his wings, and uttered sounds.* It is to be re~ gretted that no detailed descriptions of these, and of such, as were used in European churches previous to the reformation, have been preserved. An account of the ingenious frauds of antiquity would be as valuable to a mechanician as it would be interesting to a philosopher. It would in all probability develope mechanical combinations both novel and useful ; and would include all the mechanism of modern androides ; and most of the deceptions to be derived from natural magic. A famous image known as the Roode of Grace, is often mentioned by English historians. A few scattered notices of it are worth inserting. Speed in his history of Great Britain, (page 790,) says " it was by divers vices [devices] made to bow down, and to lift up itself e, to shake, and to stir both head, hands, and feet, to rowle its eyes, moove the lips, and to bend the b?'ows" It was destroyed in Henry VIIPs reign, being " broken and pulled in pieces, so likewise the images of our Lady of Walsingham and Ipswich, set and besprinkled with jewels, and gemmes, with divers others both of England and Wales, were brought to London, and burnt at Chelsea, before the Lord Crumwell." In the life of the last named in- dividual some further particulars of it are given, and which explain the mode of operation. " Within the Roode of Grace, a man stood inclosed with an hundred wyers, wherewith he made the image roll his eyes, nod his head, hang the lip, move and shake his jaws ; according as the value of the gift offered, pleased or displeased the priest ; if it were a small piece of silver, he would hang the lip, if it were a good piece of gold, his chaps would go merrily," &c. Cromwell discovering the cheat, caused the image " with all his engines to be openly showed at Paul's Cross, and there to be torn in pieces by the people." Clarke's Lives, Lon. 1675. It would have been a dangerous practice to have employed intelligent ' lay craftsmen' in making machines like this, or to have engaged them in ' pulling the wires.' The shrine of BecJcct showed great proficiency in some of the arts. It " did abound with more than princely riches, its meanest part was pure gold, garnished with many precious stones, as Erasmus that saw it, hath written ; whereof the chiefest was a rich gemme of France, offered by king Lewis, who asked and obtained (you may be sure, he buying it so deare) that no passenger betwixt Dover and Whitesand should perish by shipwracke." The bones of Becket were laid in a splendid tomb. " The timber work of his shrine was covered with plates of gold, damasked and embossed with wires of gold, garnished with broches, images, angels, precious stones, and great orient pearles ; all these defaced filled two chests, and were for price, of an unestimable value." A catalogue of the miracles wrought at his shrine filled two folio volumes !b a Sec Kircher's Musurgia Universalis, Rome, 1650, Tom ii, p. 413, for an ingenious figure of such an automaton. b Accounts kept by Churchwardens previous to the reformation often exhibit curious information in relation to the repairing, replacing, and clothing of images, and to the sale of damaged or worn out ones, as appears by the following extracts from ' A boake of the stuffe in the cheyrche of Holbeche sowld by Cheyrchewardyns of the same, ac« cording to the injunctyons of the Kynges Magyste, A. D. 1447.' The Trinity with the Tabernacle, sold for two shilling and fourpence. The Tabernacle of Nicholas arid James for six shillings and eight pence. "All the Apostyls coats and other raggs" for eight shil- lings and four pence. And in 1547, " XX score and X hund, oflatyn, at ii. s. and xi. d. the score." This item probably consisted of brazen utensils, images, &c. sold for theii value as old metal. Stukely's Antiquities. London 1770, page 21. Chap. 13.] ^Speaking Tubes. 107 Other devices, less complex than the Roode of Grace, but when adroitly managed, equally effective and imposing, consisted in the application of se- cret tubes, through which sound might be conveyed from a person at a dis- tance. Sometimes the accomplice was concealed in the pedestal, or in the statue itself, or in the vicinity. " The craftinesse of the inchanters, (observes Peter Martyr,) led them to erect images against walles, and gave answer through holes bored in them ; wherefore the people were marvellouslie amazed when they supposed the images spake. There were dailie woon- ders wrought at the images whereby the sillie people were in sundriewise seduced."3 It was by a trick of this kind, that Dunstan confounded his adversaries in an important discussion — the crucifix hanging in the church opened its mouth and decided the question in his favor. Numerous exam- ples of more recent times might be given. We add one from Keysler's Trav. Vol. i, 148 : A monk having made a hole through a wall, behind an image of the Virgin, ' placed a concealed tube from it to his cell; and through it caused the image to utter whatever he wished the people to believe.' By such tubes figures of the Virgin have repeatedly declared her wishes, saluted her worshippers, and returned their compliments. It was by the same device that several statues of heathen deities performed prodigies ; that of Jupiter for example, which burst forth into loud fits of laughter. Misson's Trav. Vol. ii, 412. Within ancient temples, says Fosbroke, was a dark interior, answering to the choir of modern cathedrals, the Penetrale, into which the people were not permitted to enter. When the time of sacrifice arrived, the priest opened the doors that the people might see the altar and victim ; for only the priests and privileged persons entered into the cella, i. e. into interior. Some temples admitted light only at the door, for darkness was deemed a most powerful aid to superstition. " The penetrale of the tem- ple of Isis, at Pompeii is a small pavilion, raised upon steps,, under which is a vault, that may have served for oracular impositions. A shrine of this kind is still open for inspection at Argos. In its original state it had been a temple ; the further part where the altar was, being an excavation of the rock, and the front and roof constructed of baked tiles. The altar yet remains and part of the fictile superstructure, but the most remarka- ble thing is a secret subterraneous passage terminating behind tlie altar its entrance being at a considerable distance, towards the right of a person facing the altar, and so cunningly contrived as to have a small aperture, easily concealed, and level with the surface of the rock. This was barely large enough to admit the entrance of a single person, who could creep along to the back of the altar, where being hid by some colossal statue, or other screen, the sound of his voice would produce a most impo- sing effect among the listening votaries." Antiq. 33. It is a curious fact that conjurers and chiefs among American Indians, were found to practice similar cheats. In St. Domingo, some Spaniards having abruptly entered the cabin of a cacique, they were astonished to hear an idol apparently speaking (in the Indian tongue) with great volubility. Suspecting the nature of the imposture, they broke the image, and dis- covered a concealed tube, which proceeded from it to a distant corner, where an Indian was hid under some leaves. It was this man, speaking through the tube, that made the idol utter, whatever he wished the hear- ers to believe. The Cacique prayed the Spaniards to keep the trick secret, as it was by it, that he secured tribute and kept his people in sub- jection.1* a Common Places, Part ii, Chap. v. Lon. 1583. b Histoire Generate. La Haye. 1763. Tom. 18, p. 229. 108 Illuminated Manuscripts. [Book I Another device adopted by ecclesiastics, for subduing the turbulent passions of their ignorant people, and exciting in them feelings of respect for the church, was by making images of the Virgin and of Christ, to weep, and sometimes to sweat blood, &c. These effects being, of course, represented as the result of their impenitence. ' The fathers of Monte Vaccino made the wooden crucifix sweat that was fastened to the wall of their church ; through which they had a passage for the water to run into the body of the crucifix, wherein they had drilled several pores, so that it passed through in little drops.' De La Mortraye's Trav. Vol. i, 23. This was a staple trick of heathen priests ; hence Statius, in his Thehaid, B. ix, v. 906, represents the statue of Diana weeping. For tears descended from the sculptured stone. And Lucan, The face of grief each marble statue wears, And Parian gods and heroes stand in tears. In the temple of the great Syrian goddess at Hierapolis, were idols that could 'move, sweat and deliver oracles as if alive. 'a Among an- cient chemical deceptions, the liquefaction of St. Januarius' blood, is still performed ; and once a year, all Naples is in suspense till the miracle is accomplished. We shall have occasion to notice other ingenious ancient devices for the same purposes of delusion, in the fourth Book, when speak- ing on the application of steam to raise water. Although the monks present lamentable examples of misdirected talents and misapplied time, their labors tended to the general progress of re- finement and learniag. We may regret that unworthy spirits among them abused the superstitions of the times to their own advantage — imitating the statesmen and priests of antiquity, in making the oracles declare what they wished \ still, they were the only lights of the dark ages, and even their introduction of images of saints, &c. in place of the pagan idols, contributed in the end to the overthrow of idolatry, and was perhaps the only condition on which the barbarous people, could be induced to give up their ancient deities. 'It can hardlie be credited,' says Peter Martyr, ' with how greate labor and difficultie, man could be brought from the wor- shipping of images.' Another class devoted themselves to writing and copying, that is, to the art of multiplying books ; and their industry and skill have never been, and in all human probability, never will be surpassed. The beauty, uni- formity and effect of their pages, are equal to those of any printed volume. The richness of the illuminated letters, the fertility of imagination dis- played in their endlessly variegated forms, the brightness of the colors and gilding, and the minuteness of finish, can only be appreciated by those who have had opportunities of examining them. We have seen some in which the illustrations equalled the finest paintings in miniatured In a literary and useful point of view, the labors of these men are above all praise. They were the channels through which many valuable works of the ancients have been preserved and transmitted to us. And as re- gards the arts, both ornamental and useful, the monks were at one time almost their only cultivators. a Univer. Hist, i, 373. bln the Library of John Allan, Esq. of this city. Chap 14.J Wheels for raising Water. 109 CHAPTER XIV. WHEELS for raising water — Machines described by Vitruvius — Tympanum — De La Faye's improve- ment— Scoop Wheel — Chinese Noria — Roman do. — Egyptian do. — Noria with Pots — Supposed origin ol Toothed Wheels — Substitute for wheels and pinions — Persian Wheel: Common in Syria — Large one» at Hamath — Various modes of propelling the Noria by men and animals — Early employment of the lat- ter to raise water. Antiquity of the Noria — Supposed to be the 'Wheel of Fortune' — An appropriate emblem of abundance in Egypt — Sphinx — Lions' Heads — Vases — Cornucopia — Ancient emblems of irrigation — Medea : Inventress of Vapor Baths — Ctesibius — Metallic and glass mirrors — Barbers. HAVING examined such devices for raising water, as from their sim- plicity have been generally unnoticed in treatises on hydraulic machines, we proceed to others more complex ; and first, to such as revolve round the centres from which they are suspended, and which have a continuous instead of an alternating motion. Although differing in these respects and in their form, from the jantu or vibrating gutter and the swape, they will be found essentially the same ; their change of figure being more apparent than real, and merely consequent on the new movement imparted to them. As these machines are obviously of later date than the preceding, it may per- haps be supposed, that the period of their introduction might be ascer- tained ; but so it is, that with scarcely an exception, the time when, place where, and the persons by whom, they were invented, are absolutely unknown. Although allusions to machines for raising water are found in several of their authors, it does not appear, that any general account or compre- hensive treatise of them, was ever written by the ancients. If such a work was executed, it has perished in the general wreck of ancient re- cords. About the beginning of the Christian era, a Roman architect and engineer, published a treatise on those professions, in which he inserted a brief description of some hydraulic engines. This is the only ancient work extant which treats professedly of them ; and the whole that relates to them might be included in two pages of this volume. The machines described by VITRUVIUS, for it is to him we allude, are the Tympanum, Noria, Chain of Pots, the Screw, and the Machine of Ctesibius or Pump. He has not mentioned the jantu, swape, the cord and bucket, with the various modes of using the latter; probably, because he considered these too simple in their construction to be properly classed among hydraulic machinery; he therefore passed by them, and modern au- thors have generally followed his example. Notwithstanding the omission of these, there are circumstances which render it probable that his ac- count, brief as it is, includes all the principal machines that were used by the nations of the old \vorld, if we except China. He wrote at a period the most favorable for acquiring and transmitting to posterity, a perfect know- ledge of the mechanic arts of the ancient civilized nations ; for he flourished during the last scenes of the mighty drama, when Rome had become the ar- bitress of the world, and the enlightened nations of the east — their wealth, learning, arts and artisans, were prostrate at her feet; so that if we were to suppose, absurd as it would be, that the previous intercourse of the Ro- mans with Asia Minor, Egypt, Carthage and Greece, had not made them fa- miliar with the arts of those countries, nothing could have prevented them from possessing such knowledge when they became Roman provinces — 110 The Tympanum. [Book I hence we infer, that if there had been in use in any of those countries, (for some centuries previous to or during the life time of Vitruvius, and he was an old man when he published his work ;) any efficient machine for raising water, different from tho^e he has described, it would have been known to the Romans, and would have been noticed by him. Moreover, he was evidently familiar with the inventions of the mechanicians of for- mer ages and frequently refers to them ; and as all the machines described by him, were of foreign origin, and most of them of such high antiquity as to reach back to ages anterior to the birth of Romulus and the founda- tion of Rome ; we have no reason to suppose that any important one has escaped him: to which we may add, if any useful machine for raising wa- ter had originated with his countrymen, he would scarcely have failed to record the fact. The tympanum consists of a series of gutters united at their open ends to a horizontal shaft, which is made hollow at one end and placed a little higher than where the water is to be elevated ; the gutters are arranged as radii, and are of sufficient length to extend from the shaft to a short distance below the surface of the water, as represented in the annexed di- S, the shaft ; G, G, the gutters ; A, a trough to take away the water. The arrow indicates the direction in which the wheel turns ; each gut- ter, as it revolves scoops up a portion of water tand elevates it, till by the inclination to the axle, it flows towards the latter, and is discharged through one end of it. Were the machine made as thus represented, i.e. of separate gutters and not connected to each other :it could not be durable, as the weight of water raised at the end of each would have a tendency No. 44. Tympanum. to break them at their junction with the shaft. The ancients therefore made two strong disks of plank well jointed together, of the diameter of the intended wheel, these they secured on a shaft, at a distance from each other, proportionate to the quantity of water required to be raised. Any number of plank par- titions (Vitruvius says eight) were then inserted in the direction of radii between these disks, and were well secured to them, and made tight by caulking and pitch. The spaces between them, at the circumference of the wheel, were also closed, with the exception of an opening left for the admission of water to each; and where each partition joined the shaft, a hollow channel was formed in the latter, parallel to the axis, through which the water was discharged into a trough or gutter placed immediately un- der it. The tympanum is obviously a modification of the jantu of India, or rather it is a number of them combined, and having a revolving instead of a vibratory movement. It is the first machine described by Vitruvius ; of which he observes, " it does not raise the water high, but it discharges a great quantity in a short time." JB. x, Cap. 9. From its resemblance to a drum or tabor, it was named by the Romans Tympanum. The prominent defect of the tympanum arises from the water being always at the extremity of a radius of the wheel, by which its resistance increases as it ascends to a level with the axis ; being raised at the end of levers which virtually lengthen till the water is discharged from them. There is no reason to suppose, that this defect if perceived at all, by an- cient mechanicians, was ever remedied by them ; to most persons, the idea would never occur, that so simple a machine could be essentially improv Chap. 14.] The Tympanum and Scoop Wheel. . Ill ed, and its having been described as represented in the last figure by a Roman philosopher and engineer; it was most likely used as thus con- structed, through the remote ages of antiquity, to the early part of the last century, when a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, of France, M. De La Faye, developed by geometrical reasoning, a beautiful and truly philosophical improvement. It is described by Belidor, (Tom.ii, 385, No. 45. Tympanum improved by La Faye. o87,; together with the process of reasoning that led to it " "When the circumference of a circle is developed ; a curve is described, (the invo- lute) of which all the radii are so many tangents to the circle ; and are likewise all respectively perpendicular to the several points of the curve de- scribed, which has for its greatest radius, a line equal to the periphery of the circle evolved. Hence, having an axle whose circumference a little exceeds the height which the water is proposed to be elevated, let the circumference of the axle be evolved, and make a curved canal, whose curvature shall coincide throughout exactly with that of the involute just formed ; if the further extremity of this canal be made to enter the water that is to be elevated, and the other extremity abut upon the shaft which is turned ; theti in the course of rotation, the water will rise in a VERTICAL DIRECTION, tangential to the shaft, and perpendicular to the canal, in what- ever position it may be." See No. 45. The above figure from Belidor, is composed of four tubes only, but it is frequently con- tracted with double the number. Instead of tubes, curved partitions between the closed sides of the wheel are oftener used, as in the SCOOP WHEEL — which consists of a number of semi- circular partitions, extending from the axle to the circumference of a large flat cylinder. As it revolves in the direction of the arrows, the ex- tremities of the partitions dip into the water, and scoop it up, and as they ascend, discharge it into a trough placed under one end of the shaft, which is hollowed into as many compart- ments as there are partitions or scoops. Wheels of this description, and propelled by steam, are extensively used to drain the fens of Lincolnshire. No. 46. Scoop Wheel. 112 The Chinese Noria. [Book I. THE NORIA OR EGYPTIAN WHEEL. The tympanum has been described as an assemblage of gutters, and the Noria may be considered as a number of revolving swapes. It con- sists of a series of poles united like the arms of a wheel to a horizontal shaft. To the extremity of each, a vessel is attached, which fills as it dips into the water, and is discharged into a reservoir or gutter at the upper part of the circle which it describes. See No. 47. Hence, the former raises water only through half a diameter, while this elevates it through a whole one. The idea of thus connecting a number of poles with their buckets, must have early occurred to the agricultural machinists of Asia. The advantages of such an arrangement being equally obvious as in the tympanum. The means that naturally suggested themselves, of strength- ening a number of poles thus arranged, gradually brought these machines into the form of wheels. Sometimes, a rude ring was formed, to which the exterior ends were secured ; at others, disks of plank were adopted, and the vessels were attached either to the sides or rim, and sometimes to both. No. 48. Chinese Noria. No. 47. *Noria. The Chinese make the noria, in what would seem to have been its pri- mitive form ; and with an admirable degree of economy, simplicity, and skill. With the exception of the axle and two posts to support it, the whole is of bamboo, and not a nail used in its construction. Even the vessels, are often joints of the same, being generally about four feet long and two or three inches in diameter. They are attached to the poles by ligatures at such an angle, as to fill nearly when in the water, and to dis- charge their contents when at, or near the top. See No. 48. ' The periphery of the wheel is composed of three rings of unequal di- ameter, and so arranged, as to form a frustrum of a cone. The smallest one, to which the open ends of the tubes are attached, being next the bank over which the water is conveyed. By this arrangement, their contents are necessarily discharged into the gutter as they pass the end of it. When employed to raise water from running streams, they are propelled by the current in the usual way — the paddles being formed of woven bamboo. The sizes of these wheels, vary from twenty to seventy feet in Chap. 14.] Egyptian Noria. 113 diameter. According to Staunton, some raise over three hundred tons of water in twenty-four hours. A writer in the Chinese Repository, men- tions others which raise a hundred and fifty tons to the height of forty feet, during the same time. They combine strength and lightness in a re- markable degree.* The mode of constructing and moving the noria by the Romans, is thus described by Vitruvius : "When water is to be raised higher, than by the tympanum, a "wheel is made round an axis, of such a magnitude, as the height to which the water is to be raised requires. Around the ex- tremity of the side of the wheel, square buckets cemented with pitch and wax are fixed ; so that when the wheel is turned by the walking of men, the filled buckets being raised to the top, and turning again toward the bottom, discharge of themselves what they have brought into the reser- voir." B. x, Cap. 9. Newton's Trans. As the drawings made by Vi- truvius himself, and annexed to his work are all lost, his translators do not always agree respecting the precise form of the machines de?cribed by him. Newton has figured the noria as a large drum, to one side of which square boxes or buckets are secured. These buckets are closed on all sides, with the exception of an opening to admit and discharge the water. Perault has placed them on the paddles or floats of an undershot wheel, like Barbara, except that the latter makes the bottom of the boxes or buckets serve at the same time as paddles to receive the impulse of the stream. Rivius, in his German Translation, (Nuremburgh 1548,) has given one figure resembling an overshot wheel with the motion reversed, a form in which it is still sometimes made ; in another, it is similar to the noria of Egypt at the present day, a modification of it, probably of great antiquity. No. 49. Egyptian Noria. Instead of pots or other vessels secured to the arms by ligatures, or buckets attached to the sides of a wheel, as described by Vitruvius, the periphery of the wheel itself is made hollow, and is divided into a number of cells, or compartments, which answer the same purpose as separate ves- »Van Braam's Journal, i, 172. Ellis's Journal of Amherst's Embassy, 230. Chinesp Repository, iii, 125. 15 114 Noria with Pots. [Book I sels. The figure No. 49, is taken from the Grande Description of Egypt. Plate 3, Tom. 2, E. M. It was sketched from one near Rosetta, which raised the water nine feet. The liquid enters through openings in the rim, and is discharged from those on the sides. The arrow shows the direction in which it moves. The section of part of the rim, will render the internal construction obvious. Mr. P. S. Girard, author of the Memoir on the Agriculture of the Egyptians, says they are extensively used in the Delta, the cog wheels being very rudely formed. The tympanum may be considered as a wheel with hollow spokes, while the noria, as above constructed, is one with hollow felloes, a term by which it is designated in French authors : ' Roue a jante creuses,' a name very expressive, and one which, in the absence of information respecting the construction of this machine, might enable a mechanic to make it. In various parts of Asia, Greece, Turkey, Spain, &c. Earthenwafe jars or pots, are secured to the rim or side of the wheel, as in No. 50. Every farm and garden in Catalonia, says Arthur Youhg, has such a ma- chine to raise water for the purpose of irrigating the soil. They are pro- pelled by horses, oxen, mules, and sometimes by men. In Spain, the noria has remained unaltered from remote times. It is there still moved by means of a device which probably gave rise to toothed wheels. In the axle of the noria are in- serted two, (and sometimes four) strong sticks which cross each oth- er at right angles, forming arms or spokes. The part of the shaft in which these are fixed, extends nearly to the centre of the path, round which the animal walks ; and contiguous to it, is the vertical shaft to which the yoke or beam is attached : the bottom of this shaft has spokes inserted into it similar to the former, and which take hold of them in succession, and thereby keep the wheel or noria in rota- tion. See No. 50. This rude con- trivance is common through all the east, and is in all probability identical with those of the early ages ; in other words, the primitive substitute of the modern cog wheel. In Besson's ' Theatre Des Instrumens' is an ingenious device by which a horizontal shaft with four spokes, as in the last figure, can impart motion to a vertical one, at any distance from the centre, and thereby answer the purpose of a number of wheels and pinions in modifying the velocity of the machinery, according to the work it has to perform, or to an increase or diminution of the motive force employed. On the horizontal shaft, (which is turned by a crank,) is a sliding socket to which the spokes are secured. The vertical shaft lias also a similar socket, which is raised and lowered by means of a screw, and to it, arms and spokes are well secur- ed. These are arranged in the form of a flat cone ; so that by adjusting the sockets, the spokes in the horizontal shaft can be made to take hold No. 50. Noria with Pots. Chap. 14.] Persian Wheel. 115 on those which form the cone round the vertical one at any part, from its apex to its base. Two prominent defects have been pointed out in the noria. First, part of the water escapes after being raised nearly to the required elevation. Second, a large portion is raised higher than the reservoir placed to re- ceive it, into which it is discharged after the vessels begin to descend. (See No. 49, in which they are very conspicuous.) Consequently, part of the power expended in moving this wheel, produces no useful effect. These imperfections, however, did not escape the notice of ancient me- chanicians, for to obviate them, the PERSIAN WHEEL was devised, and so named from its having been invented or extensively used in that country. The vessels in which the water is raised, instead of being fastened to the rim, or forming part of it, as in the preceding figures, are suspended from pins, on which they turn, and thereby retain a vertical position through their entire ascent ; and when at the top are inverted by their lower part coming in contact with a pin or roller attached to the edge of the gutter or reservoir, as represented in the figure. By this ar- rangement no water escapes in rising, nor is it elevated any higher than the edge of the reservoir; hence the defects- in the noria are avoided. Persian wheels No. 51. Persian Wheel. it is believed, have been used in Eu- rope ever since the Romans ruled over it, if not before. The greatest work in France according to Arthur Young, for the artificial irrigation of land, was a series of them in Lan- guedoc, which raised the water thirty feet. In a Dutch translation of Virgil's Georgics in 1682, they are represented with huge buckets like barrels, suspended from both sides of the rim. They are common in Switzerland and the Tyrol. Travels in Poland by D'Ulanski, page 241. They were extensively used in England one hundred and fifty years ago. See Diet. Rusticum. Lon. 1704. We are not aware of their being much employed, if at all, in the United States. They are common in various parts of Asia. "The water wheels still used in Syria," says Mr. Barrow, "differ only from those of China, by having loose buckets suspended at the circumference, instead of fixed tubes."* Dr. Russel, in his 'Natural History of Aleppo/ (p. 20,) says the inhabitants make use of large quantities of water, " which they raise with the Persian wheel," from the river. Perhaps the most interesting speci- mens of these machines extant, are to be found in another and very ancient city of Syria; in Hamath on the Orontes. so named after its founder, one of the sons of Canaan. "Two days journey below Horns, (says Volney) is Hamath, celebrated in Syria for its water works. The wheels are the largest in the country, being thirty-two feet in diameter." The city is built on both sides of the river, and is supplied with water from it by means of them, the buckets of which empty themselves into stone aque- ducts, supported on lofty arches on a level with the ground on which the city stands. They are propelled by the current. Burckhardt observed about a dozen of them, the largest he says, "is called Naoura el Mahommeyde, a Embassy to China, Lon. 1806. p. 540. 116 Modes of propelling the Noria. [Book I and is at least seventy feet."a They are, he remarks, the greatest curiosity which a modern traveler can find in the city. Their enormous magnitude will be apparent, if we consider that the loftiest class of buildings in this city, (N. York,) those of six stories, seldom exceed sixty feet. If there- fore, the largest of the Persian wheels at Hamath, were placed on the pavement, with its side towards a range of such buildings, it would oc- cupy a space nearly equal to the fronts of three of them, and would ex- tend several feet over the roofs of the highest — and twelve of them would occupy a street, one sixth of a mile in length. The construction of the water works of Hamath have probably re- mained unaltered in their general design, from very remote times. The peculiar location of this city, the rapidity of the river, (named El Ausi, the swift,) and its consequent adaptation to propel undershot wheels, which we know, were used in such works by the ancients, render it probable that the present mode of raising water, is much the same as when this city flourished under Solomon; and when the Romans under Aurelius, over- threw the queen of Palmyra and her army, in its immediate vicinity; and from the great antiquity of the noria, its extensive use over all Asia in former ages, and its peculiar adaptation to Hamath, and the tenacious ad- herence of the orientals to the devices of their forefathers; we infer that the machines which Burckhardt beheld with admiration, raising the water of the Orontes, were similar to others in use at the same city, when the spies of Moses, searched the land, 'from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath.^ These wheels may be cited as another proof of the preservation, (by continual use) of hydraulic machines, while every other memorial of the people by whom they were originally used, has long since disappeared. MODES OF PROPELLING THE NORIA. — The tympanum, noria, chain of pots, and even the screw, were often turned, according to Vitruvius, by the ' treading' or ' walking of men,' i. e. except when employed to raise water from rapid streams, in which case they were propelled, he says, by the current acting on float boards or paddles, as in common under-shot wheels. There is a difference of opinion among his translators respecting the mode by which men moved these machines. Rivius, the translator of the German edition of 1548, seems to have thought that they walked round an upright shaft, (as in figs. 26 and 53,)which they turned by horizontal bars, and by means of cog wheels communicated the required motion. He has also represented the noria as moved by men turning a crank ; a mode of propelling it that is figured in the first German edition of Ve- getius, (1511.) Barbaro, (1567,) represents the tympanum as moved by a crank; the noria by a current of water; and the chain of pots, by a tread wheel, like the one figured in No. 24. Perault, also, in his figure of aTravels in Syria, and the Holy Land. Lon. 1822, p. 146. b There are several interesting circumstances recorded respecting Hamath. This city and Damascus were frequently subject to the Jews. The ' land of Hamath,' was par- ticularly fatal to them and their kings. Zedekiah was there taken, and his sons and no- bles slain in his presence ; his own eyes were then put out, and he was carried a captive to Babylon, wheie he died. Jer. xxxix, 5. Pharaoh Necho there put Jehoahaz, another of their kings in bonds, whence he was taken a prisoner to Egypt, and confined till his death. 2 Kings xxiii, 34. Among the most interesting discoveries of modern times, connected with the ancient history of this people, are sculptured representations at Thebes, of the Jews captured by Shishak, with the hieroglyphical inscription, ' J*s houda Melee,' king of the Jews. From the discoveries of Young and Champollion the precision with which the dates are determined, is wonderful ; ' many of the sculp tures have the dates inscribed to the day and the month.' The figure of the Jewish king, is supposed to be a correct portrait, for we are told in those of the Egyptian mo- narchs, " the likenesses are always exactly preserved." Chap. 14.] Early employment of Animals to raise Water. 117 the tympanum, places the men in a similar one, and this interpretation of the text has been generally followed. It is corroborated by other ancient authors, and by Vitruvius himself, in Book x, cap. 4, where he speaks of a wheel to raise weights, 'by the walking of men therein,' that is, the common walking crane. Philo, who was contemporary with Vitruvius, or nourished shortly after him, mentions a wheel for raising water, which was turned by the motion of men's feet, 'by their ascending successively the several steps that are within it.' Tread wheels are mentioned also by Suetonius, and Strabo speaks of some for raising the water of the Nile, which were moved by a hundred and fifty slaves. Mr. Newton, the En- glish translator, supposed the men walked on the outside of the wheel, like the modern treac^ mill. It is very probable that this mode was in use among the ancients, for it is common in Persia and other oriental countries, particularly China, where it is undoubtedly of great antiquity. Barbaro has figured the screw, as propelled by men pulling down spokes on the periphery of a wheel attached to it, or by treading on them. About eighteen years ago, a person in this city, (N. York,) took out a patent for employing animals to propel such wheels. A horse was placed near the top and yoked to a horizontal beam fixed behind, and against which he drew. In January, 1795, a Mr. Eckhardt obtained a patent in England for 'A Method of applying Animals to Machinery in general.' His plan was to employ cattle and all other bulky animals to walk on the top of large wheels ; he also proposed a flexible floor, like an endless chain, which passed over two wheels, and formed an inclined plane on which animals walked, and to increase the effect, they drew a loaded cart be- hind them.* Sixty years before this, viz. in 1734, Mr. W. Churchman exhibited before the Royal Society, a model of 'A new Engine for raising Water, in which Horses and other Animals draw without any loss of power.' This engine was a series of pumps worked by a large tread wheel, on the top of which horses were made to draw against a beam to which they were yoked. He also proposed to employ horses at the same time within the wheel.b But the contrivance was even then an old one, for in Agricola, a horse is figured imparting motion to bellows by walking upon a tread wheel.0 There is a passage in the second chapter of the Koran, which throws some light on the early employment of animals in raising water. Among the ancients, it was a prevailing custom when they sacrificed an ox, or a heifer, to select such as had never been broken to labor : hence the direc- tion of the Sibyl to Eneas. Seven bullocks yet unyoked, for Phoebus choose, And for Diana, seven unspotted ewes. The Israelites also, were instructed to offer " a red heifer without spot wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke" " An heifer which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke." One which, according to Mahomet, was " not broken to plough the earth, or WATER the field" Now this interpretation is not only consistent with the text of Moses, but is exceedingly probable, for the Arabs have un- doubtedly preserved with their independence and ancient habits, traditions of numerous transactions referred to in the Pentateuch, the particulars of which are not recorded ; besides it indicates, what indeed might have been inferred : viz. that the principal employment of animals in the early ages, was to plough and irrigate the soil. But when in process of time, a Repertory of Arts. Lon. 1795. Vol. ii. bPhil. Trans. Abridged by Martyn, viii, '621. «DeRe Wetallica, 169 118 Antiquity of the Noria. [Book I human population became dense, then animal labor was in some degree superseded by that of man. The extensive employment of the latter, appears to have been a prominent feature in the political economy of an- cient Egypt, just as it is in modern China. As the country teemed with inhabitants, the extensive use of animal labor would not only have inter- fered with the means of the great mass of the former in obtaining a living, but would have required too large a portion of the land to raise food merely for the latter. The antiquity of the noria may be inferred from its name of " Egyptian wheel," the only one by which it was known in some countries. It is to be found if we mistake not, among the symbols of ancient mythology. In elucidating one of the religious precepts of ftuma, which required persons when worshipping in the temples, to turn round ; Plutarch ob- serves, that this change of posture may have an enigmatical meaning, "like the EGYPTIAN WHEELS, admonishing us of the instability of every thing human., and preparing us to acquiesce and rest satisfied with whatever turns and changes the divine being may allot." Life of Numa. This figurative application of the noria, is obviously used by Plutarch as a com- mon and consequently a long established symbol of the mutability of human affairs ; and, as the sentiment which he illustrates by it, is precisely the same as that which the wheel of the goddess of fortune was designed to point out, the " instability of fortune," and of which it was the emblem, we conclude that the " wheel of fortune," was a water wheel, and no oth- er than the NORIA ; and that to it, the Grecian philosopher in the above passage referred. The selection of an Egyptian wheel to denote the mu- tability of human affairs, indicates the origin not only of Plutarch's simili- tude, but also that of the fable of the goddess. Egypt was the source whence the Greeks obtained not only their arts and science, but also their mythology, with its deities, heroes and its mysterious system of symbolical imagery; and if the Egyptians were not the inventors of the system of representing and concealing things by symbols, they certainly carried it to a greater extent than any other people, and at a period long before the Greeks had emerged from barbarism, or an Egyptian colony had settled in their country. Although we are not aware that the wheel of fortune had any other signification, yet, as the same goddess presided over RICHES AND ABUND- ANCE— a more expressive emblem of these in EGYPT could not have been devised. Agriculture was the grand source of wealth in that country, and it depended almost entirely upon artificial irrigation, for except dur- ing the annual inundation of the Nile, water was raised for that purpose by machines, and among these, the noria was one of the most prominent, and probably one of the most ancient. Egypt without irrigation would have been a dreary waste, and like its neighboring deserts uninhabited by man; but by means of it, the soil became so exceedingly fertile that Egypt became "the garden of the east," — the " hot bed of nature," and the "granary of the world." It was artificial irrigation \vhich, under the Pharaohs, produced food for seventeen millions of inhabitants, and in the reign of 'Rameses or Sesostris, a surplus sufficient for thirty -three millions more ; and even under the Grecian yoke, when its ancient glory had long departed, the prodigious quantities of grain, which it produced, enabled Ptolemy Philadelphus to amass treasure equal to nine hundred and fifty millions of dollars. There was therefore a peculiar propriety, whether designed or not, in the goddess of " prosperity," " riches," and " abund- ance," being accompanied with the noria or Egyptian wheel, the imple- Chap. 14.] Ancient emblems of Irrigation. 119 raent which contributed so greatly to produce them. The manner in which this deity was sometimes 'represented, appears to have had direct reference to agriculture and irrigation. She was seated on rocks, (em- blems of sterility 1) the wheel by her side and a river at her feet, (to sig- nify irrigation ?) and she held wheat ears, and flowers in her hand. But whether the ancient Egyptians adopted the noria or not, as the emblem of wealth and irrigation, one of their most favorite symbols has direct reference to the latter, and indirectly to the former : viz. the SPHINX ; figures of which have been found among the ruins, from one end of the country to the other. This figure consists, as is universally known, of the the head and breasts of a woman, united to the body of a lion, and was symbolical of the annual overflow of the Nile, which occurred when the sun passed through the zodiacal signs, Leo and Virgo — hence the combination of these signs in the Sphinx, as an emblem of that general irrigation of the land once a year, upon which their prosperity so greatly depended. This was the origin of passing streams of water through the mouths of figures of lions, and sometimes, though more rarely, of virgins, as in the figures below — which are taken from Rivius' translation of Vitruvius. No. 52. Orifices of Pipes, &c. symbolical of Irrigation. The analogy between the form and ornaments of an object and its uses, seems to have always been kept in view by the ancients ; although, from our imperfect knowledge of them, it is difficult and sometimes impossible to perceive it. That they displayed unrivaled skill in some of their de- signs and decorations is universally admitted. There is certainly no na- tural analogy between a lion and a fountain, and no obvious propriety in making water to flow out of the mouths of figures of these animals ; on the contrary, they appear to be very inappropriate ; but when we learn that the lion as an astronomical symbol, was intimately associated with a great natural hydraulic operation, of the first importance to the welfare of the Egyptians, we perceive at once their reasons for transferring figures of it to artificial discharges of the liquid, and hence the orifices of cocks, pipes, and spouts of gutters, fountains, &c. were decorated as above. In some ancient fountains, figures of virgins, as nymphs of springs, leaned upon urns of running water. In others, VASES overturned, (with figures of Aquarius, Oceanus, &c.) a beautiful device. Lions' heads for spouts are very common in Pompeii. There is another ancient emblem, and one that is universally admired, which may here be noticed, as its origin is associated with artificial irri~ gation — the CORNUCOPIA, or 'Horn of Abundance.' This elegant symbol is probably of Egyptian origin, for Isis was sometimes represented with it, and Isis, in the Egyptian language, signified the 'cause of abundance.' We have already seen that irrigation was and still is, the principal source of plenty in Egypt; and water in the scriptures is repeatedly used in the same sense. To understand the allegory, it must be borne in mind that rivers were anciently compared to bulls; the reasons for which at this re- mote period, are not very obvious ; perhaps among others, from the noise 120 Medea : Ancient Vapor Baths. [Book I. of rapid streams, bearing some resembance at a distance, to the lowing and bellowing of these animals ; and the branches of rivers were com- pared to their horns; thus, the small branch of the Bosphorus, which forms the harbor of Constantinople, still retains its ancient name of the ' Golden Horn ;' and in some of our dictionaries, 'winding streams' is given as one of the definitions of horns. The bull which is common on some Greek coins is supposed to have been the symbol of a river, per- haps from the overflow of some, when the sun passed through the. zodiacal sign Taurus. According to the Greek version, one of the branches of the river Achelous in Epirus, was diverted or broken off by Hercules, to irri- gate some parched land in its vicinity. This, like other labors of that hero, was allegorized by representing him engaged in conflict with a bull, (Achelous) whom he overcame, and broke off' one of his horns ; and this horn being filled with fruits and flowers, "was emblematical of the subse- quent fertility of the soil. Ovid describes the contest, when that hero 'twixt rage and scorn, From his maimed front, he tore the stubborn horn, This, heap'd with flowers and fruits, the Naiads bear, Sacred to plenty, and the bounteous year. ****** But Achelous in his oozy bed Deep hides his brow deform'd, and rustic head, No real wound the victor's triumph show'd, But his lost honors griev'd the watery god. Met. ix. Thus river gods were sometimes represented with a cornucopia in one hand, and the other resting on a vase of flowing water. Another interesting allegory of the ancients has reference to water : the fable of MEDEA, who it was said, by boiling old people, made them young again, referred to warm or vapor baths, which she invented, and into which she infused fragrant herbs — in other words, the 'patent medicated vapor baths' of the present day. She also possessed the art of changing the color of the hair. When therefore, by her fomentations, persons ap- peared more active and improved in health, and their grey hairs changed into ringlets of jet, the belief in her magic powers became irresistible — and when at length, her apparatus, i. e. the cauldrons, wood and Jire, fyc. were discovered, (which she had sedulously concealed,) it was supposed that her patients were in reality boiled. From Ovid, it seems she had the modern sulphur bath also, and used it in the cure of ^Eson, the father of her husband Jason : the sleeping sire, She lustrates thrice with sulphur, water, fire. * * * * * His feeble frame resumes a youthful air, A glossy brown, his hoary beard and hair. The meagre paleness from his aspect fled And in its room sprang up a florid red. Met. vii. This lady was the great patroness of herb and steam doctors of old ; and may be considered the ancient representative of modern manufacturers of specifics, which, as they allege, (and often truly) remove all diseases. The fable of her slaying her own children in the presence of Jason, is easily explained by her administering to them the wrong medicine, or too large •a dose of the right one ; the latter was certainly the case with old Pelias who expired under it. Having noticed in this chapter the supposed origin of cog-wheels, we may as well introduce here an ancient mechanic, to whom we shall have occasion hereafter to allude ; one, whose name is intimately associated with the most valuable machines for raising water, and with several im- Chap. 14.] Ctesibius. 121 portant improvements in the mechanic arts. As the earliest distinct notice of cog-wheels is in the description of one of his machines, (see the clep- sydra, page 547,) we may as well introduce him to the reader at this part of our subject,' although we have not yet in the progress of our work, arrived at the period at which he flourished. During the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus over Egypt, an Egyptian barber pursued his vocation in the city of Alexandria. Like all professors of that ancient mystery, he possessed besides the inferior apparatus, the two most essential implements of all : a razor and a looking glass, or mirror, probably a metallic one. This mirror, we are informed, was sus- pended from the ceiling of his shop, and balanced by a weight, which moved in a concealed case in one corner of the room. Thus, when a customer had undergone the usual purifying operations, he drew down the mirror, that he might witness the improvement which the artist had wrought on his outer man ; and, like Otho, In the Speculum survey his charms. Juv. Sat. ii. after which he returned it to its former position for the use of the next customer.* It would seem that the case in which the weight moved was enclosed at the bottom, or pretty accurately made, for as the weight moved in it, and displaced the air, a certain sound was produced, either * Metallic mirrors furnish one of the best proofs of skill in working the metals in the remotest times, for their antiquity extends beyond all records. In the first pages of his- tory they are mentioned as in common use. The brazen laver of the Tabernacle, was made of the mirrors of the Israelitish women, which they carried with them out of Egypt. From some found at Thebes, as well as representations of others in the sculp- tures and paintings, we see at once that these ' looking glasses,' (as they are called in Exodus,) were similar to those of Greek and Roman ladies : viz. round or oval plates of metal, from three to six inches in diameter, and having handles of wood, stone and metal highly ornamented and of various forms, according to the taste of the wearer. Some have been found in Egypt with the lustre partially preserved. They are com- posed of an alloy of copper, and antimony or tin, and lead ; and appear to have been carried about the person, secured to, or suspended from the girdle, as pincushions and scissors were formerly worn and are so still by some antiquated ladies. The Greeks and Romans had them also of silver and of steel. Some of the latter were found in Herculaneum. Plutarch mentions mirrors enclosed in very rich frames. Among the articles of the toilet found in Pompeii, are ear-rings, golden and common pins, and several metallic mirrors. One is round and eight inches in diameter, the other an ob- long square. They had them with plane surfaces, and also convex and concave. Se- neca says his countrywomen had them also, equal in length and breadth to a full grown person, superbly decorated with gold and silver, and precious stones. Their luxury in this article, seems to have been excessive, for the cost of one often exceeded a mo- derate fortune. The dowry which the Senate gave the daughter of Scipio, according to Seneca, would not purchase in his time, a mirror for the daughter of a freedman. The Anglo Saxon dames had portable metallic mirrors, and wore them suspended from the waist. It is not a litle singular that the ancient Peruvians had them also, formed of silver, copper and its alloys, and also of obsidian stone. They had them plane, convex, and concave. Had not the art of making these mirrors been revived in the speculums of reflecting telescopes, their lustre could hardly have been appreciated ; and they would probably have been considered as indifferent substitutes for the modern looking- glass. These last are supposed to have been manufactured in ancient Tyre, and of a black colored glass. Fluid lead or tin was afterwards used. It was poured on the plates while they were hot from the fire, and being suffered to cool, formed a back which reflected the image. Looking-glasses of this description were made in Venice, in the 13th century. It was not till about the 16th, that the present mode of coating the back with quicksilver and tin foil was introduced. The inventor is not known. Venus was sometimes represented with a speculum m one hand, and the astronomical symbol of the planet Venus is the figure of one. There is a chemical examination of an ancient speculum in the 17th volume of Tilloch's Phil. Mag. Barbers flourished in the mythologic ages, for Apollo having prolonged the ears of Midas to a length resembling those of a certain animal, the latter it is said, endeavored to hide his disgrace by his hair, but found it impossible to conceal it from his barber Bronze razors were anciently common. 16 122 The Chain of Pots. [Book 1 by its expulsion through some small orifice, or by its escape between the sides of the case and the weight. This sound had probably remained unnoticed like the ordinary creaking of a door, perhaps for years, unti* one day as the barber's son was amusing himself in' his father's shop, his attention was arrested by it. This boy's subsequent reflections induced him to investigate its cause ; and from this simple circumstance, he was led eventually either to invent, or greatly to improve the hydraulic organ, a musical instrument of great celebrity in ancient times. His ingenuity and industry were so conspicuous, that he was named * The Delighter in Works of Art.' His studies in various branches of natural philosophy, were rewarded it is said, with the discovery of the pump, air-gun, fire-en- gine, &c. He also greatly improved the clepsydra or water-clock, in the construction of which he introduced toothed wheels, and even jeweled holes. Vitruvius, ix, 9. These ancient time-keepers, were therefore the origin of modern clocks and watches. Now this barber's son is the indi- vidual we wish to introduce to the reader, as CTESIBIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, one of the most eminent mathematicians and mechanicians of antiquity — one, whose claims upon our esteem, are not surpassed by those of any other individual, ancient or modern. It will be perceived that the simple, the trivial sound produced by the descent of the weight in his father's shop, was to him, what the fall of the apple was to Newton, and the vibration of the lamp or chandelier in the church at Pisa, to Galileo. The circumstance presents another to the nu- merous proofs which might be adduced, that inquiries into the causes of the most trifling or insignificant of physical effects, are sure to lead, di- rectly or indirectly, to important results — while to young men especially, it holds out the greatest encouragement to occupy their leisure in useful researches. It shows, that however unpropitious their circumstances may be, they may by industrious application, become distinguished in science, and may add their names to those of Ctesibius and Franklin, and many others — immortal examples of the moral grandeur of irrepressible per- severance in the midst of difficulties. CHAP T E R XV. THE CHAIN OF POTS— Its origin— Used in Joseph's well at Cairo— Numerous in Egypt— Attempt ol Belzoni to supersede it and the noria — Chain of pots of the Romans, Hindoos, Japanese, and Europeans — Described by Agricola — Spanish one — Modern one — Applications of it to other purposes than raising water — Employed as a first mover and substitute for overshot wheels — Francini's machine — Antiquity o/ the chain of pots — Often confounded with the noria by ancient and modern authors — Introduced into Greece by Danaus — Opinions of modern writers on its antiquity — Referred to by Solomon — Babylonian engine that raised the water of the Euphrates to supply the hanging gardens — Rope pump — Hydraulic Belt THE tympanum and noria in all their modifications, have been consider- ed as originating in the gutter or jantu, and the swape ; while the ma- chine we are now to examine is evidently derived from the primitive cord and bucket. The first improvement of the latter was the introduction of a pulley (No. 11) over which the cord was directed — the next was the ad- dition of another vessel, so as to have one at each end of the rope, (Nos. 13 and 14) and the last and most important consisted in uniting the ends Chap. 15.] Egyptian Chain of Pots. 123 of the rope, and securing to it a number of vessels at equal distances through the whole of its length — and the CHAIN OF POTS, was the result. The general construction of this machine will appear from an examin- ation of those which are employed to raise water from Joseph's well at Cairo, represented at page 46. Above the mouth of each shaft a vertical wheel is placed ; oyer which two endless ropes pass and are sus- pended from it. These are kept parallel to, and at a short distance from each other, by rungs secured to them at regular intervals, so that when thus united, they form an endless ladder of ropes. The rungs are some- times of wood, but more frequently of cord like the shrouds of a ship, and the whole is of such a length that the lowest part hangs two or three feet below the surface of the water that is to be raised. Between the rungs, earthenware vases (of the form figured No. 7) are secured by cords round the neck, and also round a knob formed on the bottom for that pur- pose. See A, A, in the figure. As the axis of the two wheels are at right angles to each other, two separate views of the chains are repre- sented. In the lower pit, both ropes of one half of the chain is seen ; while in the upper, the whole length of one is in view. The vases or pots are so arranged that in passing over the wheel, they fall in between the spokes which connect the two sides of the latter together, as shown in the section ; and when they reach the top, their contents are discharged into a trough. [In some machines the trough passes under one rim which is made to project for that purpose ; in others, it is placed below the wheel and between the chains.] There are in the upper pit, one hundred and thirty-eight pots and the distance from each other is about two feet seven inches. The contents of each are twenty cubic inches. The wheels that carry the chains are six feet and a half in diameter. They are put in mo- tion by cog wheels (on the opposite end of their axles) working into oth- ers that are attached to the perpendicular shafts to which the blindfolded animals are yoked. The chain of pots in Egypt is named the Sakia. Its superiority over the noria and tympanum, &c. in being adapted to raise water from every depth, has caused it to be more extensively employed for artificial irriga- tion than any other Egyptian machine — hence it is to be seen in operation, all along the borders of the Nile, from its mouth up to the first cataract. In Upper Egypt, and Nubia, they are so exceedingly numerous as to oc- cur every hundred yards ; and in some cases they are not forty yards apart. Their numbers and utility have rendered them a source of revenue, for we are informed that each sakia is taxed twenty dollars per annum, while the swape is assessed at half that amount. They are also common in Abys- sinia. They were noticed there by Poncet in 1698. When Sandys was in Egypt, A. D. 1611, the great number of sakias did not escape his observation : " Upon the banks all along are infinite numbers of deepe and spacious vaults into which they doe let the river, drawing up the wa- ter into higher cesterns, with wheeles set round with pitchers, and turned about by buffaloes." Travels, page 118. An attempt was made some years ago by an enterprising European to supersede the employment of these machines in Egypt, which on account of the interesting circumstances connected with it may here be noticed. In the latter part of the last century an intelligent young man of Padua was designed by his parents for a monk, and was sent to Rome to receive an appropriate education. His inclination however led him to prefer the study of natural philosophy to that of theology, and particularly hydrau- lics. Upon the invasion of Italy and capture of Rome by the French, he wandered over various parts of Europe, supporting himself by publicly per 124 Roman Chain of Pots. [Book I, forming feats of agility and strength, and by scientific exhibitions. After roving thus for fifteen years, he determined to visit Egypt, under the belief that he would make his fortune there by introducing machinery on the prin- ciple of the pump, as substitutes for the noria and chain of pots, &c. In June 1815, he landed at Alexandria, and after some delay was introdu- ced to Mahommed Ali, (the present Pasha,) who approved of his project, and in whose gardens at Soubra, three miles from Cairo, he constructed his machine. But no sooner was it completed and put in operation than he discovered in the Turkish and Arabic cultivators an unconquerable op- position to its introduction. Indeed this result might have been anticipa- ted and, if we are not mistaken, they were right in preferring their own simple apparatus to an elaborate machine, of the principle of whose action they were utterly ignorant. Their rejection of it was looked upon as an- other example of superstitious adherence to the imperfect mechanism of former ages ; but under all the circumstances, it was, we believe, an evi- dence of the correctness of their judgment. Thus disappointed, his brightest hopes blasted, and his pecuniary resources all but exhausted — for he received no remuneration, either for the loss of his time or his money — he, with an energy of character deserving all praise, determined to make the best of his misfortunes. He therefore turned his attention to that subject which necessarily occurs to every intelligent stranger in Egypt-^its antiquities — and while the British Museum remains, and the colossal head of young Memnon is preserved, the name of BELZONI will be remembered and respected. From the following description of the chain of pots by Vitruvius, it ap- pears that the Romans made it of more durable materials than either the an- cient or modern people of Asia. " But if a place of still greater height (than could be reached by the noria) is to be supplied ; on the same axis of a wheel, a double chain of iron is wound and let down to the level of the bottom ; hav- ing brass buckets, each containing a congius (seven pints) hanging thereto, so that upon the turning of the wheel, the chain revolving round the axis raises the buckets to the top ; which when drawn upon the axis, become in- verted and pour into the reservoir the water they have brought." Book x, Cap. 9, Newton's Trans. As no re- ference is made to the form of the ves- sels, by Vitruvius, we find them repre- sented by translators in a variety of shapes, as cylinders, cubes, truncated cones, pyramids, as well as portions of, and combinations of them all. Some are left open at the top, and both with and without projecting lips in front, by which to shoot the contents over the edge of the reservoir as they pass the No. 53. Kouiuu Chain of Pots. wheel or drum. Others are closed, and admit and discharge the water through an orifice or short tube as re- presented. (No. 53.) From the separate figure of one of the vessels it Chap. 15.] Hindoo Chain of Pots. 125 will be seen that the tubes are placed at the upper corner, and consequent- ly retain the water till the vessels ascend the drum, when it is discharged as represented. Provision should be made for the escape of air from these vessels, as they enter the water, and also for its admission on the discharge of the liquid above. The wheel or drum which carries the chain is, in this figure, solid, and cut into a hexagonal form to prevent it from slipping. There is also in old authors a great diversity in the construction of the chains, and also in their number. Some understand by the term ' double chain,' merely a simple one doubled and its ends united ; i. e. one whose length is equal to double the space through which the water is to be ele- vated by it. Others suppose two separate ones intended and placed par- allel to each other, the vessels being connected to them as in the figure. Others again, and among them Barbaro, figure two sets of chains and pots carried by the same wheel. He has also made them pass under pulleys in the water, a useless device, except when the chains are employed in an inclined position. The chain of pots is mentioned by most oriental travelers, although de- scribed by few. In Terry's voyage to India in 1615, speaking of the tanks and wells of the Hindoos, he observes, " they usually cover those wells with a building over head, and with oxen draw water out of them, which riseth up in many small buckets, whereof some are always going down, others continually coming up and emptying themselves, in troughs or little rills, made to receive and convey the water, whither they please." p. 187. To the same machine Fryer refers, when speaking of the differ- ent modes of raising water from deep wells. It is drawn up, he says, by oxen " with huge leathern buckets or pots around a wheel." p. 410. And again at Surat, it is drawn up " in leathern bags upon wheels." p. 104. Had not wells been mentioned in connection with these extracts from Fryer, we might have supposed it was the noria to which he alluded. Tavernier mentions it in the same way as applied to draw water from wells in Persia, p. 143. When required to raise it from rivers, they were, as in the case of the Persian wheels on the Orontes, propelled by the current when it was sufficiently rapid for the purpose. " As for the Euphrates, (observes Tavernier,) certain it is that the great number of mills built upon it, to convey water to the neighboring grounds, have not only rendered it unnavigable, but made it very dangerous." Lucan in the 3d book of his Pharsalia alludes to this extensive diversion of the wa- ter for agricultural purposes, in his time. But soon Euphrates' parting waves divide, Covering, like fruitful Nile, the country wide. These mills are probably similar to those referred to by Montanus in his account of Japan, p. 296. The city of Jonda, he observes was de- fended by a strong castle, which was " continually supplied with fresh water by two mills." It is a pity they were not described. The chain of pots was used by all the celebrated nations of antiquity and it still is employed more or less over all Asia and Europe. Previous to the 16th century, it constituted the 'waterworks' for supplying Europe- an cities, and was often driven by windmills — as it still is in Holland. It seems to be the ne plus ultra of hydraulic engines among half civilized nations, while those only which are enlightened, have the pump. Even the materials of which it was made by different people of old, may be considered as emblematical of their national characters. The inhabitants of Egypt, central and southern Asia, employed light and fragile materials; 126 Spanish Chain of Pots. [Book 1. the ropes were fibres of the palm tree, and the vessels of earthenware ; while the Romans made the chains of iron and the vessels of brass. The former people were soft, effeminate, and easily subdued; the latter stern and inflexible — an iron race. It is described by Agricola as employed in the German mines. De Re Metallica, pp. 131, 132, 133. The chains and vessels are represented of various forms, and the latter both of iron and wood, and propelled by tread and water wheels.51 In Besson's ' Theatre,' A. D. 1579, it is figured as worked by a pendulum and cog wheels — the teeth being continued over half the peripheries only.b In Spain it has remained in continual use since the conquest and occu- pation of that country by the Romans ; and was perhaps previously intro- duced by the Phenicians, a people, to whom Spain was early indebted for many valuable acquisitions. It was employed there by the Moors in the middle ages, under whom the inhabitants enjoyed a degree of prosperity and civilization unexampled during any subsequent period of their histo- ry. The arts and manufactures were carried to great perfection, so much so, that in the twelfth century, while the rest of Europe was in compara- tive barbarism, the tissues of Grenada and Andalusia were highly prized at Constantinople, and throughout the eastern empire. To the Moors of Spain, Europe was greatly indebted for the introduction and dissemination of many of the arts of the east ; among others they introduced the Asiatic system of agriculture, with its inseparable adjunct artificial irrigation. We are told they divided the lands into small fields, which were kept constantly under tillage ; and "they conveyed water to the highest and driest spots " No. 54. Spanish Chain of Pots. The chain of pots in Spain, is in the form and material of its vessels a The De Re ' Metallica' of George Agricola is invaluable for its account of the hy- draulic engines employed in the mines of Germany in the 16th and preceding centu ries; being doubtless similar to those used by the Romans in some of the same mines, and continued uninterruptedly in use. The first edition of this work was published in 1546, others in 1556— 1558— 1561— 1621— and 1657, all at Basil. Brunei's ' Manuel Du Libraire et De L' Amateur de Livres.' Paris, 1820. It is a copy of the last edition we make use of. The author was born in 1494, and died in 1555. b See also Kircher's Mundus Subterraneus. Tom. ii. pp. 195, 228. Chap. 15.J Modern Chain of Pots. 127 and the imperfect substitutes for cog wheels, identical with those of Egypt and Asia, and may be considered a fair representative of this machine as used in the agricultural districts of the ancient world. No. 55, represents a section of a mod- ern machine. The wheel is placed in or over a cistern designed to receive the wa- ter. Buckets are secured to the chain be- tween the joints of the latter, and the wheel as it revolves, receives the cen- tre of these joints on the ends of its arms, which are suitably shaped for the purpose. The buckets therefore fall in between the arms of the wheel and be- come inverted in passing over it as in the figure. No. 55. Modern Chain of Pots. The chain of pots has been applied to a great variety of purposes. It has been employed for ages, in cleansing docks, deepening harbors, &c. The vessels being made of iron and formed like wide scoops, are made to pass un- der pulleys attached to the bottom of a moveable frame, \vhich is raised and lowered, to suit the varying depth of the channel. Besson also proposed it to raise mortar, &c. to the top of city walls, fortifications, &c. and wherever large quantities were required ; an ap- plication of it that is worthy of the notice of extensive builders, for the time consumed and exertion expended by a laborer, in ascending a long lad- der or flight of stairs to deposit a modern hodful of mortar, and returning through the same space, is hardly consistent with the spirit of economy and useful research that characterizes the age. The amount of force con- sumed in bearing his own body twice over the space, independently of the load, would in a well regulated device of this kind produce an equal re- sult. Oliver Evans introduced the chain of pots into his mills, for the pur- pose of transmitting flour and grain to the different floors. It has been adopted as a substitute for water wheels. As the noria, when its motion is reversed by the admission of water into its buckets at the upper part of the periphery, is converted into an overshot wheel — so the chain of pots, has in a similar manner, been made to transmit power and communicate motion to other machines. In locations where there is a small supply of water, but which falls from a considerable height, it be- comes a valuable substitute for the overshot wheel, as a first mover. It is remarkable that this obvious application of it should not have occurred to European mechanicians previous to the 17th century. It was designed by M. Francini, and by the direction of Colbert, the illustrious and pa- triotic minister of Louis XIV, one was erected in 1668, in one of the pub- lic gardens at Paris. A natural spring in this garden supplied water for the plants. It was received into a large basin, and to prevent its over- flowing, the surplus or waste water was discharged by a gutter into a well, at the bottom of which it disappeared in the soil. M. Francini took ad- vantage of this fall of waste water in the well, and made it the means of raising a portion of the spr'.ng water sufficiently high to form a jet d'eau, 128 Francini's Machine. [Book I. He erected a chain of pots, E, B, No. 56, which reached from the bot- tom of the well to such a height above its mouth as the water to form the jet was required to be raised. From the upper wheel or drum, another chain of pots, D, C, was suspended and carried round by it, the lower end dipping into the water to be raised from the spring A. By this arrange- ment the weight of the water in de- scending the well in the buckets of the first chain, raised a smaller portion (allowing for friction) through the same space by the second one — and a proportionable quantity still higher. A spout conveyed the water into the buckets of the driving or motive chain as shown at B. These buckets were made of brass, and wide at the top, the better to receive water from the spring ; and also that when one was filled, the surplus might fall down its sides into the next one below, and from that to the third one, and so on, that none might be lost by spilling over. The buckets of the other chain were of the same form and material, but instead of being open like the for- mer, they were closed on all sides, the water being received into them at A, and discharged from them at m, through short necks or tubes, e, s, which are upwards when the buckets ascend, being connected to the smaller part of the latter. A pipe from the upper cistern m, conveyed the water to form the jet. The arrow indi- cates the direction in which both chains move. The vessels on the chain E, B, below B, descending into the well, (the bottom of which is not shown,) full — while those shown at D, C, are empty. The chain of Pots has been employed to work pumps in mines, to pro- pel thrashing machines, &c. &c.R There is much confusion in the notices of the chain of pots by ancient authors, from their referring to it without discrimination as a ' Wheel? and thus confounding it with the tympanum and noria, and that modification of the latter, known as the Persian wheel. From the circumstance of its having been propelled in the same manner as these, viz : by oxen in the usual way, (through the medium of cog wheels,) or by men walking upon or within a wheel, &.?. it has from custom, inadvertence, or from a superficial knowledge of its distinctive features, been classed with them. It was of it that Strabo spoke, " which by wheels and pulleys raised the water of the Nile to the top of a very high hill ; and which, instead of being moved by oxen, was propelled by one hundred and fifty slaves." And when Julius Caesar was beseiged in Alexandria by the Egyptians, No. 56. Franciui's Machine. a See Vol. i, of machines approved by the French Academy. Desaguliers' Philos Vol. ii Edinburgh Encyc. Vol. x, 896. Chap. 15.] Chain of Pots. 129 the chain of pots was included among the " wheels and other engines," by which the latter raised water from the sea and discharged it into the cisterns that supplied Csesar's army with fresh water. It was most like- ly among the " hydraulic engines," which Herodotus observes the Baby- lonians had, to raise water from the Euphrates to irrigate their lands. These ' engines' were certainly similar to those of India, Egypt, Greece, and other neighboring countries ; for if they had been of novel construc- tion, or peculiar to Chaldea, he would scarcely have failed to notice so important a fact, if he even omitted (as he has) to describe them. The same lack of discrimination is obvious in almost all the accounts of modern as of ancient authors, respecting this machine. When they speak of wheels for raising water, it is as difficult to ascertain those to which they allude, as it is in the parallel passages of Philo and Diodorus, Strabo and Csesar. Thus Tavernier in his passage down the Tigris to Bagdat. remarks, " all the day long, we saw nothing upon either side of the river, but pitiful huts, made of the branches of palm trees, where live certain poor people that turn the wheels, by means whereof they water the neighboring ground." Sometimes the chain of pots is mentioned by travelers as the Persian ivJieel, and popular extracts from their works tend greatly to perplex enquirers into its history. When we met with statements from SHAW'S travels, that the Persian wheel was extensively used on the banks of the Nile, through all Egypt, they were so much at variance with the testimony of other oriental travelers, and so foneigri to our impressions respecting the use of that machine in Egypt, that we had immediate reference to his work ; when the apparent discrepancy was explained. He describes and figures the chain of pots (sakia) as the Persian wheel* Norden commits the same error : " they likewise employ the Persian wheel with ropes of pitchers, which is turned by oxen."b Twiss also describes the Spanish chain of pots as the Persian wheel, and which he observes is used " all over Portugal, Spain, and the Levant."6 Other travelers speak of it as the Noria. Mr. Jacob, in his " Tra- vels in the South of Spain," Lon. 1811, page 152, says the Spaniards " use a mill of Arabic origin, from which our chain pump is evidently derived ; it is called a noria. A vertical wheel over a well has a series of earthen jars fastened together by cords of Esparto, which descend into the water and fill themselves by the motion of the wheel. The vertical wheel is put in motion by a horizontal one, which is turned by a cow. No machine can be more simple." In the Grande Description of Egypt, it is designated ' Roue a pots,'6 instead of naming it from the chain, its peculiar and distinguishing feature. It certainly has nothing in com- mon with the noria, except the pots or vessels in which the water is raised; and these in the latter, are suspended from the arms of inflexible levers, and ascend in the arc of a circle ; while in both these circumstances, and others might be named, there is no resemblance whatever between them. The chain of pots is generally named by French authors, ' Chapelet,' from its resemblance to the string of beads, which Roman catholics, Mahome- tans, Budhists, &c. (like the Pagans of old) use in repeating their prayers. This appellation is sufficiently discriminating, and is appropriate ; certainly more so than Roue a pots, since it serves to separate this machine from every species of wheels, and to preserve a distinction between two very different classes of hydraulic engines. The chain of pots seems always to have been used to raise water from a Travels, page 337. b Travels in Egypt and Nubia, Vol. i, 56. Travels through Portugal and Spain in 1772. and '73. Lon. 1780, page 329. 2. Memoirs, E. M. Plate 5. 17 130 Pumps of Danaus. [Book I. Joseph's well. If the location of tins well, its peculiar construction, di- vision into two distinct shafts, the chamber between them for the animals which propel the machinery, the passage for their ascent and descent, and its enormous depth, be maturely considered, it will appear, we think, that no other machine could at any time have been used, or intended by its con- structors to have been used in raising its water ; if therefore this celebra- ted well be, as supposed, a work of the ancient Egyptians, or a relic of Babylon, then the endless chain of pots may safely be regarded as coeval with the foundation of that ancient city, if not, as it probably is, much more ancient. It was probably the ' pump/ which according to tradition, DANAUS introduced into Greece, a thousand years before the building of Babylon by the Persians. During the time the Israelites were in Egypt, this prince, in consequence of domestic quarrels, left it with his family and friends, and sailed for Greece. They landed on the coast of Peloponessus or the Morea, and were hospitably entertained at Argos, where they set- tled. It is said, the Greeks did not at that time possess the knowledge of obtaining water from wells ; the companions of Danaus having been the first to dig them, and to introduce PUMPS. Pliny vii. 56. If the inhabit- ants of Greece were ignorant of wells, previous to the arrival of these strangers, they could certainly have had no occasion for pumps ; and it was natural for the Egyptians, when they dug wells, to introduce their own country methods of obtaining water from them. As the word ' pumps,' is not however to be understood in the restricted sense in which it is at present used, the question occurs, what kind of ma- chines were these? 1. They must have been simple in their construction, for otherwise they would have been ill adapted to a rude and uncultivated people, and such the Greeks were while ignorant of wells. 2. They must have been of general application to the icells of Greece. 3. They were such as, from their great utility, were continued in use through sub- sequent ages, for they were highly prized, and the memory of their intro- duction preserved. 4. They were such as were previously used in Egypt. Now, of all ancient devices for raising water, to which the term 'pump1 could with any propriety be applied, the chain of pots is the only one that fulfils the conditions premised. It is evident that the jantu and its modi- fications are wholly inapplicable to raise water from wells ; and the tym- panum and noria are equally so. The swape is not adapted to deep wells and those of Greece were generally such : yet as it is admirably adapted to raise water from small depths, and was so used by the ancient Greeks ; it is probable that it was also introduced by Danaus ; as we know that it was in common use in Egypt, in his time. (See figures 36 and 43.) It must however have been of extremely limited application to wells on ac- count of their depth. (See page 38.) The modern inhabitants of Egypt raise water with it only about seven feet ; and from the figures just referred to, it is obvious that in the time of Danaus, it was raised no higher by it. but if its application was even extended in Greece, to elevate water from twice that depth, its employment in wells must have been comparatively trifling. It could not have been the chain pump, for it does not appear, that either the Greeks or Romans were acquainted with that machine. Vi- truvius is silent respecting it. Nor can we suppose any thing like the atmospheric or forcing pump intended — even, if it could be proved that both were then known. They are too complex to have been at all suited to the Greeks at that remote age. Indeed they are altogether worthless to a rude people, who would be unable to keep them in order, or to detect Chap. 15.] Antiquity of the Chain of Pots. 131 the causes of their ceasing to act. But that the 'pumps' of Danauswere some kind of bucket machines, like the chain of pots, is inferable from the account of his daughters' punishment. They were condemned to draw water from deep wells, and would of course, use the machines their fa ther introduced. Now we are told that the vessels in which they raised the liquid leaked so much, that the water escaped from them ere it reach- ed the surface — hence their endless punishment. The witty remark of Bion implies the same thing. A person speaking of the severe punish- ment of these young women, in perpetually drawing water in vessels full of holes, he remarked, " I should consider them much more to be pitied were they condemned to draw water in vessels without holes." Hence, we infer that the Egyptian sakia or CHAIN OF POTS, was the ' pump' in- troduced by Danaus, and that to it tradition refers. It was the only one to which, from its construction, and adaptation to every depth, the name of ' pump' could have been applied — while from its simplicity and effi- ciency, it was a gift of no ordinary value to the Greeks ; and the introduc- tion of it into their country was worthy of being preserved from oblivion. It is believed to have been in uninterrupted use there since the age of Danaus ; although history may not have preserved any record or repre- sentation of so early an employment of it. It is still used on the conti- nent and in the islands, as well as throughout Syria and Asia Minor. At SMYRNA it is as common as a pump with us. In " Voyage Pittoresque de la Grece," Paris, 1782, Plate 49, contains a drawing, and page 9 a description of one in a garden at Scio, the ancient Chios, and capital city of the island of the same name. It is similar to the one represented in No. 54, and is doubtless identical with those employed in the same cities, when Homer was born near the former, and when he kept a school in the latter. On the antiquity of this and preceding machines, we add the opinions of recent writers. " A traveler standing on the edge of either the Libyan or Arabian desert, and overlooking Egypt, would behold before him one of the most magnificent prospects ever presented to human eyes. He would survey a deep valley, bright with vegetation, and teeming with a depres- sed but laborious population engaged in the various labors of agriculture. He would see opposite to him another eternal rampart, which, with the one he stands upon, shuts in this valley, and between them a mighty river, flowing in a winding course from the foot of one chain to the other, fur- nishing lateral canals, whence the water is elevated by wheels and buck- ets of the rudest structures, worked sometimes by men and sometimes by cattle, and no doubt identical with the process in use in the days of Sesos- tris."* " These methods" (of raising water to irrigate the land,) " are not the invention of the modern Egyptians, but have been used from time im- memorial without receiving the smallest improvement"** " Even the creak- ing sound of the water wheels, as the blindfolded oxen went round and round, and of the tiny cascades splashing from the string of earthen pots into the trough which received and distributed the water to the wooden canals ; were not disagreeable to my ears, since they called up before the imagination, the primitive ages of mankind, the rude contrivances of the early kings of Egypt, for the advancement of agriculture, which have un- dergone little change or improvement up to the present hour."c Like every other machine that has yet been named, the date of its ori- a North American Review, Jan. 1839. p. 185-6. b History of the Operations of the French and British Armies in Egypt Newcastle 1809. Vol. i, page 92. « SL John, " Egypt and Mohammed Ali." Vol. i, 10. 132 Chain of Pots referred to in Ecdesiastes. [Book L gin is unknown. From its simplicity, its obvious derivation from the prim- itive cord and bucket, its employment over all Asia and Egypt at the present time, and its extensive use in the ancient world ; there can be no question of its great antiquity. Vitruvius is alike silent respecting the origin of this, as of the noria and tympanum, and doubtless for the same reason — their origin extended too far into the abyss of past ages to be dis- covered. It is singular that the ancients, who attributed almost every agricultural and domestic implement to one or other of their deities, should not have derived the equally important machines for raising water from a similar source. The origin of the plough they gave to Osiris, of the harrow to Occator, the rake to Sarritor, the scythe to Saturn, the sickle to Ceres, thejlaj.1 to Triptolemus, &c.; and as they attributed the art of manuring ground to a god, they surely ought to have given the invention of ma- chines to irrigate it to another. To the chain of pots, there is an allusion in the beautiful description of the decay and death of the human body, in the 12th chapter of Ecclesi- astes : " Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken; or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cis- tern." In the east, the chain is almost uniformly made of cord or rope ; and the former part of the passage appears to refer to the ends, which are spliced or tied together, becoming loosened, when the vessels would necessarily be broken, for the whole would fall to the bottom ; an occur- rence which is not uncommon. The term silver cord, is expressive of its whiteness, the result of its constant exposure to water and the bleaching effect of the sun's rays : and golden bowl refers to the red earthenware pots or vases, in which the water is raised. Both pots and cords stream- ing with water, and glittering in the sun, presented to the vivid imagina- tions of the orientals, striking resemblances to burnished gold and silver. The circulation of the stream of life in man, (his blood)8 its interruption in disease and old age, his energies failing, and the mechanism of his frame wearing out, and at last ceasing forever to move ; are forcibly illus- trated by the endless or circulating cord of this machine; its raising living waters and dispersing them through various channels, as so many streams of life, until its vessels, the pitchers, become broken, and the flow of the stream interrupted, and the wheel, upon which its movements depended, becoming deranged, broken, and destroyed. That the pots or vases are frequently broken, we learn from numerous travelers. In the account of Joseph's well, in the Grande Description, it is said to be necessary for a man to be in constant attendance, to keep the animals which move it from stopping, and to replace the pitchers that are broken. And that the wheels were often deranged is more than pro- bable, when we consider how exceedingly rude and imperfect is their construction over all the east. The surprise of travelers has often been elicited by their continuing to work at all, while exhibiting every symptom of derangement and decay. " The water wheels, pots, ropes, &c." says Mr. St. John, "had an extremely antique and dilapidated appearance;- and, if much used, would undoubtedly fall to pieces. "b We are told that a more striking picture of rude and imperfect mechanism could scarcely be conceived ; and it is not improbable, that the ' Egyptian Wheel' as an em- blem of instability, had reference to its defective construction and con- aThat the circulation of the blood was known to the ancients, see Dutens' 'Inquiry into the origin of the discoveries attributed to the Moderns ' Lon. 17G9, pp. 210, 22V v Egypt and Mohammed Ali, i, 3*26, 127. Cfcap. 15.J The Babylonian Engine. 133 stant liability to derangement, as much so as to its rotary movement. Nor is it likely that they were much superior at any time in Judea, for the Jews never cultivated the arts to any extent. The mechanics among them when they left Egypt were probably more numerous and expert than during any subsequent period of their history. In the eleventh cen- tury B. C. when Saul began to reign, there was not a fylacksrryth in the land, or one that could forge iron ; they had been carried off by the Phi- listines ; and although David at his death left numerous artificers, when his son built the temple and his own palace, he obtained mechanics from TYRE. It is moreover possible that the plaints and moanings incident to old. age, 'when the grasshopper shall be a burden and desire shall fail,' were also intended to be pointed out by the perpetual creaking of these rickety machines, as indicative of approaching dissolution. The harsh noise they make has been noticed by several travelers? St. John speaks of the creak- ing sound of the water wheels ; and Stephens, in his ' Incidents of Travel,' observes, " it was moonlight, and the creaking of the water wheels on the banks, (of the Nile) sounded like the moaning spirit of an ancient Egyptian." ON THE ENGINE THAT RAISED WATER FROM THE EUPHRATES TO SUPPLY THE HANGING GARDENS AT BABYLON. There is a machine noticed by ancient authors, which probably belongs to this part of our subject, and it is by far the most interesting hydraulic engine mentioned in hi^ory. Some circumstances connected with it, are also worthy of notice. It was constructed and used in the most ancient and most splendid city of the postdiluvian world ; a city which according to tradition existed like Joppa, before the deluge: viz. BABYLON — a city generally allowed to have been founded by the builders of Babel; subse- quently enlarged by Nimrod; extended and beautified by Semiramis; and which reached its acme of unrivaled splendor under Nebuchadnezzar. The engine which raised the water of the Euphrates to the top of the walls of this city, to supply the pensile or hanging gardens, greatly ex- ceeded in the perpendicular height to which the water was elevated by it, the most famous hydraulic machinery of modern ages ; and like most of the works of the remote ancients, it appears to have borne the impress of those mighty intellects, who never suffered any physical impediment to interfere with the accomplishment of their designs ; and many of whose works almost induce us to believe that men ' were giants in those days.' The walls of Babylon, according to Herodotus, i, 178, were 350 feet high ! Diodorus Siculus and others make them much less; but the descriptions of them by the latter, it is alleged, were applicable only, after the Per- sians under Darius Hystaspes retook the city upon its revolt, and demo- lished, or rather reduced their height to about 50 cubits ; whereas the fa- ther of history gives their original elevation, and incredible as it may ap- pear, his statement is believed to be correct. He is the oldest author who has described them ; and he visited Babylon within one hundred and twenty years of Nebuchadnezzar's death; and four hundred before Dio- dorus flourished. He has recorded the impressions which at that time, the city made on his mind, in the following words, " its internal beauty and magnificence exceed whatever has come within my knowledge;" and Herodotus, it must be remembered, was well acquainted with the splen- did cities of Egypt and the east. Had not the pyramids of Geezer, the temples and tombs of Thebes and Karnac, the artificial lake? and canals of Egypt, the wall of China, the caves of Ellora and Elephanta, &c. 134 The Babylonian Engine. [Book 1. come down to our times; descriptions of them by ancient authors, would have been deemed extravagant or fabulous, and their dimensions reduced to assimilate them with the works of modern times: so strongly are we inclined to depreciate the labors of the ancients, whenever the^y greatly excel our own. According to Berosus, who is quoted by Jose- phus, Antiq. x, 11, it was Nebuchadnezzar who constructed these gardens, so that the prophet Daniel must have witnessed their erection, and also that of the hydraulic engine ; for he was a young man when taken a cap- tive to Babylon in the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, and he con- tinued there till the death of that monarch and of his successor. Amytis, the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, was a Mede, and as Babylon was situated on an extensive plain, she very sensibly felt the loss of the hills and woods of her native land. To supply this loss in some degree, these fa- mous gardens, in which large forest trees were cultivated, were con- structed. They extended in terraces formed one above another to the top of the city walls, and to supply them with the necessary moisture, the engine in question was erected.* As no account of the nature of this machine has been preserved, we are left to conjecture the principle upon which it was constructed, from the only datum afforded, viz : the height to which it raised the water. We can easily conceive how water could have been supplied to the upper- most of these gardens by a series of machines, as now practised in the east to carry water over the highest elevations — but this is always mentioned as a single engine, not a series of them. Had its location been determin- ed, that circumstance alone, would have aided materially in the investi gation ; but we do not certainly know whether it was placed on the highest terrace — on a level with the Euphrates — or at some intermediate elevation. The authors of the Universal History remark, " upon the uppermost of these terraces was a reservoir, supplied by a certain engine, from whence the gardens on the other terraces were supplied." They do not say where the engine itself was located. Rollin places it on the highest part of the gar- dens : "In the upper terrace there was an engine or kind of pump by which the water was drawn up." The statement of an engine having been erected at the top is probably correct, for we are not aware that the ancients at that period possessed any machine which, like the forcing pump, projected water above itself. Ancient machines, (and every one which we have yet examined, is an ex- ample,) did not raise water higher than their own level. But if sucking and forcing pumps were then known and used in Babylon, a period howev- er, anterior to that of their alleged invention, of at least 500 years, still if this engine was placed on the uppermost terrace, both would have been wholly inapplicable. If therefore we incline to the opinion that this en gine was a modification of one of those ancient machines, which we have already examined ; we are not led to this conclusion by supposing the state of the arts in Babylon at the period of its construction, to have been too crude and imperfect to admit of more complex or philosophical 51 Paintings found in Pompeii, represent Villas of two stories having trees planted on their roofs. These kind of gardens were probably not very uncommon in ancient times in the east, though none perhaps ever equaled those of Babylon. They have be«n continued to modern times in Asia. Tavernier, when in Bagnagar (the modern Hyderabad) the capital of Golconda, found the roofs of the large courts of the palace terraced and containing gardens, in which were trees of such immense size " that it is a thing of great wonder how those arches should bear so vast a burden." The origin of these and of the city was similar to that of the Babylonian gardens. The King at the importunity of Nagar, one of his wives, founded the city and named it after her Bagnagar — i. e, " the gardens of Nagar." Chap. 15.] The Babylonian Engine. 135 apparatus — on the contrary, we know that the Babylonians carried many of the arts to the highest degree of refinement. " They were great con- trivers," in this respect, and " fell short of no one nation under the sun, so far from it, that they in a great measure showed the way to every na- tion besides." Univer. His. Vol. i, 933. Besides, it is certainly more 'philosophical to suppose this famous engine to have been a modification of some machine, which we have reason to believe was used in Chaldea at that time, and capable of producing the results ascribed to the Babylonian engine, than of any other of which that people possibly knew nothing. Of all ancient machines, the CHAIN OF POTS was certainly the best adapt- ed for the purpose, and if we mistake not, the only one that could, with any regard to permanency and effect, have been adopted. It stands, and justly so, at the head of all ancient engines for raising water through great elevations ; and it may be doubted whether any machine could now be produced better adapted for the hanging gardens of Babylon — either in the economy and simplicity of its construction ; durability and effect ; or be less liable to derangement, less expensive, or less difficult for ordinary people to repair. The project of raising water through a perpendicular elevation, exceeding three hundred feet, in numerous vessels attached to an endless chain, would probably startle most of our mechanicians ; and some might suppose that the weight of so long a chain, if made of iron, would overcome the tenacity of the metal ; but almost all the works of the remote ancients partook of the same bold features. Magnitude in some of their MACHINES, is as surprising as in other departments of their labors. Their engineers seem to have carried it to an extent that in modern days, would be considered as verging on the limits of the natural properties of materials. That the chain of pots was the standard machine for raising water in quantities from great depths would appear from Vitruvius, since it is the only one adapted for that purpose which he has described, except the "machine of Ctesibius ;" and as he professes to give an account of the " various machines for raising water," and his profession as a civil engi- neer would necessarily render him familiar with the best of them, it is clear that he was ignorant of any other having been in previous use. That the engine at Babylon was no other than the chain of pots, may be inferred from the employment of the latter in Joseph's well, where it raises water to an elevation nearly equal to that ascribed to the former ; and if the subject were of sufficient interest, we think a connection might be traced between them, if Joseph's well be, as supposed, a relic of Egypt- ian Babylon. Both Egypt and Chaldea were subject to the same monarch at the time that city was built. Twenty two or three years only had elapsed after Nebuchadnezzar*s death when Cyrus took Babylon, and with it the empire ; and nine years after he was succeeded by his son Cambyses, who when in Egypt, it is alleged, founded a city on the site of modern Cairo, and named it after old Babylon. Cambyses reigned seven years and five months. If, therefore, the Babylonian machine was superior to the ' chain of pots,' (and it must have been, if it differed at all from the latter, for otherwise it would not have been selected,) then it would, we think, as a matter of course, have been adopted also in Joseph's well, in which the water was required to be elevated to about the same height as in the hanging gardens. Besides, if it possessed peculiar advantages, it would certainly have been preserved in use, as well as the chain of pots, for the wealth, comfort, and even existence of the people of the east, have at all times depended too much upon such machines to suffer any valuable one to be lost. 136 Rope Pump. [Book 1. But was the chain of this machine formed of metal, or of ropes 1 Of the latter we have no doubt. They are generally made of flax or fibres of the palm tree at the present day over all the east. In great elevations, chains of rope possess important advantages over those of metal, in their supe- rior lightness, being free from corrosion, and the facility of repairing them. But by far the most interesting problem connected with the Babylonian engine is, was the water of the Euphrates raised by it to the highest ter- race at a SINGLE LIFT ? If we had not been informed of one reservoir only, on the upper terrace " from whence the gardens on the others were water- ed," we should have supposed the water really raised as in Joseph's well, i. e. by two, or even more separate chains ; and as it is, we cannot believe that so ingenious a people as the Babylonians would raise the whole of the water which the gardens required to the uppermost terrace, when the greatest portion of it was not wanted half so high. As the size of the ter- races diminished as they approached the top of the walls, it is probable that full two thirds of the water was consumed within one hundred feet of the ground. We therefore conclude that this famous engine was composed of at least two, and probably more, separate chains of pots; and even then, it might with as much propriety, be noticed by ancient authors as a single machine, as that at Cairo still is, by all modern travelers. Winkelman says, the famous gardens at Babylon had canals, some of " which were supplied by pumps and other engines." And Kircher in his Turris Babel., 1679, represents fountains and je.ts d'eau on every terrace. No. 57. Rope Pump. There is another device that belongs to this chapter. Every person knows, that where water is dispersed over extended surfaces, and of too lim- ited depth to allow the use of a vessel to scoop it up, various substances are employed to absorb it, as sponge and woolen rags, and from which it is separated by pressure. A housemaid, when washing a floor, thus collects in a cloth the liquid dispersed in the purifying process ; and by wring- ing returns it to the vessel. The process is substantially the same as that adopted to raise \vater in Vera's Rope Pump. See No. 57. This machine consists of one or more endless ropes, formed of loosely Chap. 16.] Hydraulic Belt. 137 spun wool or horse hair, and stretched on two pulleys like the endless chain of pots. These pulleys have grooves formed on their surfaces for the reception of the ropes. One of them is placed over the mouth of a well, and the other suspended in or secured to the bottom. A rapid mo- tion is communicated to the upper pulley, by a multiplying wheel, and the ascending side of each rope then carries up the water absorbed by it ; and which is separated from it when passing over the upper pulley, partly by centrifugal force, and partly by being squeezed in the deep groove, or by passing through a tube as shown in the figure. In the beginning of the motion, the column of water adhering to the rope, is always less than when it has been worked for some time, and continues to increase till the surrounding air partakes of its motion. By the utmost efforts of a man, nine gallons of water were raised by one of these machines from a well, ninety-five feet deep, in one minute. Adam's Philos. Vol. iii, 494. The HYDRAULIC BELT is a similar contrivance. It is an endless double band of woolen cloth, passing over two rollers, as in figure 57. It is driven with a velocity of not less than a thousand feet per minute ; when the water contained between the two surfaces is carried up and discharged as it passes over the upper roller, by the pressure of the band. Some machines of this kind are stated to have produced an effect equal to seventy-five per cent, of the power expended, while that of ordinary pumps seldom ex- ceeds sixty per cent. See Lon. Mechan. Mag. Vol. xxix, page 431. CHAPTER XVI. THK SCREW — An original device — Various modes of constructing it — Roman Screw — Often re-invented — Introduced into England from Germany — Combination of several to raise water to great elevations — Marquis of Worcester's proposition relating to it, exemplified by M. Pattu — Ascent of water in it formerly considered inexplicable — Its history — Not invented by Archimedes — Supposed to have been in early use in Egypt — Vitruvius silent respecting its author — Conon its inventor or re-inventor — This phi- losopher famous for his flattery of Ptolemy and Berenice — Dinocrates the architect — Suspension of metal- lic substances without support— The screw not attributed to Archimedes till after his death— Inventions often given to others than their authors — Screws used as ship pumps by the Greeks — Flatterers like Conon too often found among men of science — Dedications of European writeri often blasphemous — Hereditary titles and distinctions — Their acceptance unworthy of philosophers — Evil influence of scien- tific mon in accepting them — Their denunciation a proof of the wisdom and virtue of the framers of the U. S. Constitution — Their extinction in Europe desirable — Plato, Solon, and Socrates — George III— Georjre IV— James Watt— Arago— Description of the 'Syracusan,' a ship built by Archimedes, in which the Screw Pump was used. THE COCHLEON or EGYPTIAN SCREW, the machine next described by Vitruvius, is, in every respect, the most original one of which he has giv- en an account. Unlike the preceding, which appear to have been in a great measure deduced from each other, it forms a species of itself; and whoever was its inventor, he has left in it a proof of his genius, and a lasting monument of his skill. If it be not the earliest hydraulic engine that was composed of tubes, or in the construction of which they were in- troduced, it certainly is the oldest one known of that description; and in its mode of operation it differs essentially from all other ancient tube ma chines ; in the latter the tubes merely serve as conduits for the ascending water, and as such are at rest; while in the screw it is the tubes themselves in motion that raises the liquid. 18 138 The Screw. [Book 1 This machine has been constructed in a variety of ways. Sometimes by winding, in the manner of a screw, one or more flexible tubes (generally of lead or strong leath- er) round a cylinder of wood or iron. This cylinder is sustained by gudgeons in such a position, that at whatever angle with the horizon it is used, the plane of the helix must always be inclined to its axis at a greater angle ; oth- erwise no water could be raised by it any more than by turning it in the wrong direction. The lower end being immersed in wa- ter, the liquid enters the tube and is gradually raised by each revo- lution until it is discharged above. These machines are commonly used at an inclination to the hori- zon of about 45°, although they sometimes are placed at 60°. See the figure. NO. 58. screw. Instead of tubes wound round a cylinder, large grooves were sometimes formed in the latter and cover- ed by boards or sheets of metal, closely nailed to the surfaces between the grooves — so that the latter might be considered as tubes sunk into the cylinder, instead of being folded round its exterior. No. 59. Roman Screw. Another mode was to make the threads of plank, arranged as a helix round a solid cylinder, which was fitted with journals, and made to revolve in a fixed hollow cylinder of the same length ; the edges or ex- tremities of the threads rubbing against the sides of the latter, and con- sequently producing the same effect as No. 58. This modification of the cochleon is known as the German Snail. It has this advantage, that it may be worked in an open channel, or half a cylinder instead of a whole one, since it is only the lower half of the latter, that is essential to the the operation of raising water. Machines of this kind of large dimen- sions have long been employed by the Dutch, and are generally driven Chap. 16.J The Screw. 139 by windmills. But the outer cylinder is more generally fixed to the edges of the helix, and turned with it. It was made in this manner by the ancient Romans ; the outer cylinder or case was of plank, well joint- ed together, and nailed to the edges of the screw, and the whole cemented with pitch, and bound together by iron hoops. It was moved like the noria, &c. " by the walking of men." Vitruvius, B. x, Chap. 11. See No. 59. The screw as represented in the preceding figures, has never been lost to the world since its invention, although it has long been unknown in that country in which it was devised — Egypt. It appears early in printed books. In the first German edition of Vegetius, (1511) it is figured, and nearly in a vertical position. A laborer with a feather in his cap, and a sword at his side, is seated across the top of the frame, and turns it by a crank.a Like almost every other hydraulic engine, the screw has often been re-invented. Cardan mentions a blacksmith of Milan, who imagining him- self its original inventor, "for joy, ran out of his wits," and the writer recollects when a boy, hearing of an ingenious shoemaker in much the same predicament. It appears to have been, like other machines for the same purpose, introduced into England from Germany. " The Holland- ers, (says Switzer,) have long ago, as some books that I have seen of theirs of fortification intimate, us'd them in draining their morassy and fenny ground, from whence they have been brought into England; and used in the fens of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and other low countries. Those of the smallest kind that are worked by men have only an iron handle, as a grindstone has; but the largest that are wrought by horses, have a wheel like the cog-wheel of a horse mill. This engine, (he con- tinues,) which takes hold of the water, as a cork screV does a cork, will throw up water as fast as an overshot wheel, whereby in a short time, an infinite number of water may be thrown up; and I remember when the foundation of the stately bridge of Blenheim was laid, we had some of them used with great success ; and they are also used in the New River Works, about Newbury, Berkshire, and said to be the contrivance of a common soldier, who brought the invention out of Flanders." Hydros- tatics, 296, 298. When employed to raise water to great elevations, a series of two, three, or more, one above another, have been employed ; the lower one discharging its contents into a basin, in which the inferior end of the next above is immersed, the whole being connected by cog wheels. Thus an old author observes, " you may raise water to any height in a narrow place, viz. within a tower to the top thereof, as we have known done at Au- gusta, in Germany ; to wit, if the spiral pipes be multiplied, so that the water being raised by the lower spiral, and being poured out into some re- ceptacle or cistern ; hence, it may be raised higher again by another spiral, and so successively by more spirals, as high as you please, all which spir- als may be moved by one power, viz. by the water of a river underneath, or by another animated power." Moxon. It was one of the objects of the Marquis of Worcester, and his * unpa- ralleled workman, Caspar Kaltoff,' to avoid the necessity of thus combin- a Whether sitting was the usual position of European laborers and mechanics when at work, in the middle ages, we know not ; but Cambden has a remark which intimates that all English mechanics had not in his time, abandoned this oriental custom In con- cluding his long account of " the States and Degrees of England," from kings, princes, dukes, lords, knights, &c. he continues, " lastly, craftsmen, artizans or workmen ; be they that labor for hire, and namely, such as SIT at work, mechanicke artificers, smiths, car pcnters," Sfc. 140 M. Pattu's Improvements. [Bookl ing a number of them together, as appears from the fifty-third proposition in the ' century of inventions,' " A way how to make hollow and cover a water screw, as " big and as long as one pleaseth, in an easy and cheap way." How, and of what materials he made this, is not known, but the fifty-fifth proposition, in the following words, has been fully and practical- ly developed by a French engineer. " A double water screw, the inner- most to mount the water, and the outermost for it to descend, more in number of threads, and consequently in quantity of water, though much shorter than the innermost screw by which the water ascendeth ; a most extraordinary help for the turning the screw to make the water rise." In 1815, M. Pattu published an account of the following improvements, by which the ideas of Worcester are realized. No. GO. No. 61. No. 62. is inucn wiaer anu snorter. a.ms is uesign threads of both wind round the axis in opposil on one appear to be moving upwards, those No. 60. represents two separate screws formed on the same axis, one of which, A, is long and narrow and serves for the nucleus of C, which is much wider and shorter. This is designed to propel the former. The >osite directions, so that when those lose on the other seem to be going downwards. The water from the stream M, is directed into the top of the large screw, and by its weight (as on an overshot wheel) puts the whole in motion, and consequently the water at O, in which the lower end of A revolves, is raised into the cistern at B. No. 61 is merely the same machine inverted. It illustrates the applications to such locations as have a short fall above the place to which the water is to be raised. In No. 62 the small screw drives the large one, through which the water from the lowest level is raised sufficiently high to be discharged at an intermediate one, as at G. From these figures it will be perceived that the screw has been employed like the noria and the chain of pots, to transmit power. This machine was formerly considered as exhibiting a very singular paradox, viz. that the water " ascended by descending," and the mystery was, how both these operations could be performed at the same time, and yet produce so strange a result. It was remarked that when those form- ed of glass, were put in motion, the water ran down the under side of each turn of the tubes, and continued thus to descend until it was discharged at the top ! The whole operation and the effects being visible, there seemed no room for dispute, however contrary to acknowledged princi- ples the whole might appear. The case was apparently inexplicable, and seemed to present a parallel one to that of the asymtote ; the properties of the latter being as incapable of demonstration to the senses, as the sup- posed operation of this machine could be reconciled to the mind. Indeed the proposition, that two geometrical lines may continue to approach each other forever, without the possibility of coming in contact, is apparently r, quite as impossible, as that water should ascend an inclined plane, by the mere exercise of its own gravity. But the idea of water descending in Chap. 16.] The Screw. 14] No. 63. its passage through the screw was altogether an illusion. On the contra ry, it is uniformly raised by the continual elevation of that part of the tubt which is immediately behind the liquid, and which pushes it up in a man- ner analagous to that represented by the following diagram. Suppose AY, the edge of a wide strip of cloth or tape, secured at both ends, at an angle with the horizon, as repre- sented, and upon which the boy's marble or ball at P, can roll. If we hold the pen with which we are writing under the tape between P Y, and raise that part into the position indicated by the dotted lines ; the ball would necessarily be pushed forward to E ; and if the pen were then drawn towards B on the line D B, the ball would be carried up to A, and without deviating in its path from the line Y A, Tf A Y were the under side of a flexible pipe or gutter, containing water at E in place of the ball, it is obvious that it would also be raised to A, in a like manner. By the same principle water is raised in the screw, and we may add, in much the same way, for the rotation of the screw is merely another mode of effecting the same thing, which we have suppos- ed to be done more directly by the pen, i. e. by producing a continual ele- vation of the plane immediately behind the ball or the water. The path of the latter through a screw is the same as that of the ball, while the curves assumed by the tape, as in the dotted lines, represent sections of the helix, and the lines D B, A Y, of the cylinder within which it is formed. All the ancient machines hitherto examined, have come down from pe-* riods so extremely remote, that not a single circumstance connected with their origin or their authors has been preserved. The screw is the first machine for raising water, whose inventor, or alleged inventor, has been named ; and yet, from the imperfect and mutilated state of such ancient writings that incidentally mention it, and the loss of others which treated professedly on it, the question of its origin is far from being settled. Al- though it is said to have been invented by Archimedes and has long been named after him, there are circumstances which render it probable that Diodorus Siculus and Atheneus were mistaken when they attributed it to the great philosopher of Syracuse. Had the account of this machine which Archimedes himself wrote, been preserved, there would have been no occasion to reason on its origin or its author ; but unfortunately this, as well as his description of pneumatic and hydrostatic engines, " concerning which he wrote some books," are among those that have perished. There is no reason to believe that Archimedes himself ever claimed its invention ; and his countryman Diodorus, who lived two hundred years after him, and upon whose authority chiefly it has been attributed to him, admits that it was invented by him in Egypt ; thus allowing it to have been devised in that country, whence the Greeks derived all or nearly all that was valuable in their philosophy and their arts. Every person knows that Egypt was the grand school for the nations of old, in which the learn- ed men of other countries were instructed in every branch of philosophy—- for the cultivation of which the Egyptians were celebrated even .in the 142 Origin of the Screw. Book 1 time of Moses — hence it frequently happened, that after returning to their homes imbued with the ' wisdom of Egypt,' philosophers were con- sidered by their countrymen as the authors of doctrines, discoveries and machines, which they had acquired a knowledge of as pupils abroad. It is not therefore impossible, that that which occurred to Thales and Pyth- agoras, Lycurgus and Solon, Plato and many others, may also have hap- pened to Archimedes with respect to this machine. It has been supposed that the screw was employed in Egypt ages before he visited that country; of this, however, there is no direct proof; perhaps an examination of the immense mass of sculptures in the temples, and tornbs of Thebes arid Beni- Hassan, &c. may yet bring to light facts illustrative of the use of this and other machines for the same purpose in very remote times. Its ancient name of Egyptian screw indicates its origin. The silence of Vitruvius respecting its origin, if Archimedes was the inventor, is singular ; for through the whole of his work he appears stu- dious to record the names of inventors. He was contemporary with Diodorus, and had therefore equal opportunities of ascertaining its history, while from his profession, and the nature of his work, a more perfect ac- count of it would be expected from him than from the other. The Roman architect had indeed every inducement, (except such as were un- worthy of him,) to record the name of the Prince of Ancient Mathemati- cians as its author, if such he knew him to be. The reputation of Ar- chimedes; his splendid discoveries; his famous defence of his native city; his melancholy death ; the interest which Marcellus took in his fate ; the erection of his tomb by that General ; and its discovery by Cicero amidst thorns and rubbish, one hundred and forty years after his d'eath, and in the lifetime of Vitruvius — induce us to believe that, as a candid philosopher and admirer of learned men, and of Archimedes himself, (B. i, Chap. 1.) he would certainly have awarded to the latter the honor of its invention, if he believed him entitled to it, either from the testimony of ancient wri- ters, or from traditional report. But if this machine was not invented by him, to whom then is the world indebted for it ? We reply — if it really be not more ancient than the Ptolemaic era — to a Grecian philosopher of Samos, who was contem- porary with Archimedes. Some readers will recollect that when Ptolemy Evergetes, the son and successor of Philadelphus, departed on a dangerous expedition, the success of which, according to Rollin, was foretold by Daniel, (xi, 7, 9,) his wife BERENICE, influenced by a principle of supersti- tion, that at one time was universal, vowed to sacrifice her greatest orna- ment, the hair of her head, to the Goddess Venus, if he was successful and restored to her in safety. Upon his victorious return, she cut off her locks and dedicated them in that temple which Philadelphus had founded in honor of her mother Arsinoe ; the dome of which temple was intend- ed to have been lined with loadstone, that the iron statue of Arsjnoe might be suspended in the air ; but the death both of Dinocrates the architect, and Philadelphus, prevented the completion of a building that would have rivalled the most perfect of all human productions ; a wrork, which proba- bly gave rise to the story of the suspension of Mahomet's coffin.8 a That metallic substances have been actually suspended without any tangible support appears from Poncet, to whose travels in Abyssinia we referred in the last chapter. He declares that he beheld in a monastery in that country, a golden staff about four feet long, thus suspended in the air ; and to detect any deception he desired permission to examine it closely, to ascertain whether there was not some invisible prop or support. " To take away all doubt (he says) I passed my cane over it and under it, and on all sides, and found that this staff of gold did truly hang of itself in the air.'' Ed. Encyc. Vol. xiii, p. 46. Chap. 16.] Invented by Conon of Samos. 143 Sometime afterwards, this consecrated hair was missing from the tem- Sle, having been lost through the negligence of the priests, or perhaps esignedly concealed. No occurrence was more likely to create alarm among a superstitious people, or to excite the ire of a despotic monarch, than such an insult to their Gods, and to his favorite queen. In this di- lemma, an astronomer of Alexandria, in order to make his court to Ever- getes, had the effrontery to give out publicly that JUPITER had carried oif the locks of Berenice to heaven, and had formed them into a constellation ! And as a proof of his assertion he pointed to an unformed cluster of stars near the tail of Leo, as Berenice's hair ! And ' Coma Berenices' is the name by which these stars are known to this day. It was this artful courtier and astronomer who either invented or re-in- vented the screw. He was named CONON of Samos, and sometimes Conon of Alexandria, from his residence in Egypt. He was an intimate friend of, and greatly esteemed by Archimedes ; and it would seem that they communicated their writings and discoveries to each other. When the former devised this machine, Archimedes we are told demonstrated and fully explained its properties ; for Conon himself was not fortunate in his demonstrations. (Bayle.) From this circumstance the name of its in- ventor was in time forgotten, and it eventually became known as the Ar- chimedian screw ; but probably not till long after the death, both of its author and illustrator. Similar instances are not uncommon in modern times ; they have in fact, always occurred. Thus, the instrument known as Hadley's Quadrant was really invented by Godfrey of Philadelphia. The compass was known before Flavio Gioia, although the Fleur de Lis,'by which he designated the north in compliment to his sovereign, is used to this day. Gunpowder was used ages before Schwartz was born — and these continents bear the name of Vespucci, not that of Columbus or Behaim. As Conon died before Archimedes, (see Bayle) and probably in Egypt, it is very possible (supposing it originated with the former) that it was first introduced into Europe by the latter ; a circumstance quite sufficient to connect his name permanently with it there. Atheneus mentions par- ticularly its application by him to raise water from the hold of the ship, which was built under his directions for Hiero ; and if an observation of the same author can be relied on, it is evident that he was the first to make it known to Grecian mariners ; for he asserts, that they held his memory in great estimation, for having enabled them to carry off the wa- ter from the holds of their vessels by it. It is greatly to be regretted that men of science should ever be found among the flatterers of despots ; yet the obsequiousness of Conon has been imitated in modern as in ancient times. Custom may yet, in some degree sanction or rather screen the practice from reproach ; but the period is, we believe, rapidly approaching when it will be subjected to general de- rision, as not only injurious to the reputation of scientific men themselves, but to science and the world at large. Our sentiments on this subject may be reprobated by some persons, arid approved of by few, — still we believe they are such as conduce to the general welfare of our race, and such as will one day universally prevail, and believing this, we express them without he- sitation— others may condemn them as out of place here, but in our opinion the evils they deprecate will not be removed until they are generally de- nounced in works devoted to the arts. Nay, we would introduce such sentiments into school books, that children may not be taught to worship a man on account of his titles, but to revere virtue and admire well culti- 144 Flatterers of Despots [Book I vated talents wherever they are found. ' We might as well (says Seneca) commend a horse for his splendid trappings, as a man for his pompous ad ditions.' Let any unsophisticated mind peruse the dedications of European works, in almost all departments of science, for the last two centuries, and he will find every attribute of the Deity blasphemously lavished on the vilest of princes, and on titled dolts, with a degree of ardor and apparent sin- cerity, that is as loathsome as the grossest practices of heathen idolatry. At the same time, these individuals who thus idolize, sometimes an idiot, at others an infant, and often a brute, affect pity for the ignorance and super- stition of ancient pagans and modern savages. But why this display of servile adulation ? Formerly to obtain bread, : in later times to procure title, hereditary title. If there is one class of men, whose extensive knowledge of nature, and the sublimity of whose studies should lead them thoroughly to des- pise the tinsel and trappings of courts, and the unnatural, and to the great mass, degrading distinctions in European society, it is astronomers ; men whose researches are preeminently calculated to ennoble the mind, whose labors have elicited the highest admiration of their talents, and whose discoveries have opened sources of intellectual pleasures so refined, that pure intelligences might rejoice in them. That such men should stoop to lay at the feet of ignorant and sensual despots, their fame, their learning, and in some degree the science of which they are the conservators, and accept from those, who are immeasurably their inferiors, what are prepos- terously named titles of honor, i. e. puerile and artificial distinctions, which, while they profess to advance those who are already in the fore- most ranks of society — really lower and degrade them — titles, relics of times when men were advanced but a few steps from the savage state, and conferred by ceremonies which are the very essence of buffoonery, — is truly one of the most lamentable facts connected with the history of mo- dern science. Learned men by thus connecting themselves with the state, consummate an unholy, an unnatural alliance, and subject even science herself (al- though they may not intend it) to politicians to speculate on. They in a measure, commit suicide on their fame, by thus supporting political insti- tutions, that can only exist by silencing the throbbings and stifling the aspi- rations of the general mind after knowledge ; institutions, which, like the old errors in philosophy, are destined to be exploded forever. It will, we think, one day appear strangely incongruous, that some of the brightest luminaries of science should have turned to royal despots for factitious rank; as if they, in whose fair fame the world feels an interest, could descend from their radiant spheres to move as satellites around such, with an increase of lustre ! Who can behold without sorrow, these men rendering homage by kneeling and other more disgusting mummeries, to individuals who are not only their inferiors in every attribute that adorns humanity, but often the most atrocious of criminals, and sometimes mere insensates ; to beg a por- tion of honor, and a title to use it ! When the world becomes free and enlightened, such examples will be adduced as illustrations of the vaga- ries and inconsistencies of the human mind ; and patents of nobility and hereditary titles of honor, especially from such sources, will be looked upon as satires on science, on the age, and on the intellect of man. These titles form the most conspicuous feature in that system of impo- sition by which the European world has too long been deluded and de- based ; and in a political point of view, the friends of man's inalienable rights, and of the amelioration of his condition, will always regret, that Chap. 16.] Too often found among Men of Science. 145 scientific men should have lent their example, to sustain distinctions that are a curse to the world. This conduct of theirs, perhaps more than any other cause, tends to uphold despotism on the earth. Of their influence in this respect, modern despots are fully aware, and which they evince by their anxiety to enlist in their train, every man eminent in any department of the arts or of science ; and many of these, it is to be deplored, they too often tickle with a feather, or amuse with a trinket, while they put a bridle in their lips and yoke them to their cars. The lust after titles and distinctions, incident to monarchical govern- ments, is in the political and moral world, what the scrofula, or ' king's evil' is in the physical : It destroys the healthy and natural organization of society, taints its fairest features with hereditary disease, and renders the whole corrupt. The wisdom of the fathers of our republic was not more conspicuous than their virtue, when they denounced such titles and distinctions as forever incompatible with the constitution. Sweep them from the earth and man in the eastern hemisphere would become a regene- rated being. Natiohs would no longer be kept in commotion and dread, nor their resources be consumed by political and military gladiators ; nor would the abominable boast of one people in conquering and plundering another be deemed creditable ; but when peace and virtue, science and the arts, would alone confer honor, and their most distinguished cultivators be deemed the most noble. Plato was no worshipper of Dionysius, nor Solon of Cro3§us ; and when the talented but unprincipled Archelaus of Macedon, drew numer- ous philosophers around him, by his wealth and the honors he conferred on them, Socrates refused even to visit him as long, said he, as bread was cheap and water plenty at Athens. Although the ancient world confirmed the name given to one of the constellations by Conon, the modern one refused to sanction a similar at- tempt to designate the remotest planet in our system, after the name of a king who was remarkable for his lack of intelligence — a bigot — and who, to preserve his prerogative, shed blood as water. Yet to that man, and to his son and successor, who, if he possessed more intelligence than the pa- rent, was the grossest sensualist of the age, and contact with whom was pollution, did some of the votaries of science kneel as to 'THE FOUNTAINS OF HONOR!' and to receive a portion of it at their hands! while a me- chanic, to whose glory it will ever be mentioned, could duly appreciate the offered bauble and reject it, if not with disdain. James Watt, the ma- thematical instrument maker of Glasgow, the great improver of the steam- engine, who conferred more benefits on his country than all the monarchs that ever ruled over it, and all the statesmen and warriors which it ever produced — refused a title. And who ever regretted that Milton was not a knight, or Shakespeare a marquis, or Franklin a lord ; or that some of the greatest poets and philosophers, philanthropists and mechanicians, that ever lived, are known to us simply as such, without having had their names bolstered up with preposterous appendages'? And who ever sup- posed they were less happy without them, less vigorous and successful in their researches ; less respected by contemporaries, or less revered by posterity 1 Long after these remarks were written, M. Arago's Memoir of "Watt, reached this country, and on perusing it, we could not but smile at the dis- appointment expressed by the great French philosopher, that his friend was not made a peer. "When I inquired into the cause of this neglect, [he observes,] what think you was the response ? Those dignities of which you speak, I was told, are reserved for naval and military officers ; 146 A large Ship built by Archimedes [Book I. for influential members of the House of Commons, and for members of the aristocracy. ' It is not the custom' and I quote the very phrase, to grant these honors to scientific and literary men, to artists and engineers." He adds, "so much for the worse for the peerage." Well be it so. In our humble opinion, it is so much the better for the memory of Watt. What had such a man to do in a house that presses like an incubus on the ener- gies of his country, and the claims to a seat in which, are too often such as are disgraceful to our common nature] An infinitely higher honor awaits him ; for both Watt and his illustrious eulogist are destined to oc- cupy distinguished stations in that Pantheon, which is yet to be erected, whose doors will be opened only to the BENEFACTORS OF MAN- KIND. There are several interesting particulars mentioned by Atheneus, respect- ing the magnificent ship named the ' Syracusan,' which was built under the directions of Archimedes, and to which we have alluded. From the follow- ing brief description, it will be perceived, that for richness of decoration ; real conveniencies and luxuries, (for even that of a library was not over- looked,) she rivalled, if she did not excel, our justly admired packets and steam ships. Three hundred carpenters were employed in building this vessel, which was completed in one year. The timber for the planks and ribs were obtained partly from Mount Etna, and partly from Italy ; other materials from Spain, and hemp for cordage from the vicinity of the Rhone. She was every where secured with large copper nails, [bolts] each of which weighed ten pounds and upwards. At equal distances all round the ex- terior were statues of Atlas, nine feet in height, supporting the upper decks and triglyphs ; besides which the whole outside was adorned with paintings; and environed with ramparts or guards of iron, to prevent an enemy from boarding her. She had three masts ; for two of these, trees sufficiently large were obtained without much difficulty, but a suitable one for the mainmast, was not procured for some time. A swine-herd acci- dentally discovered one growing on the mountains of Bruttia. She was launched by a few hands, by means of a helix, or screw machine invented by Archimedes for the purpose, and it appears that she was sheathed with sheet lead.* Twelve anchors were on board, four of which were of wood, and eight of iron. Grappling irons were disposed all round, which by means of suitable engines could be thrown into enemies' ships. Upon €ach side of this vessel were six hundred young men fully armed, and an equal number on the masts and attending the engines for throwing stones. Soldiers, [modern marines] were also employed on board, and they were supplied with ammunition, i. e. stones and arrows, 'by little boys that were below/ [the powder monkies of a modern man of war,] who sent them up in baskets by means of pulleys. She had twenty ranges of oars. Upon a rampart was an engine invented by Archimedes, which could throw arrows and stones of three hundred pounds, to the distance of a stadium, [a furlong] besides others for defence, and suspended in chains of brass. She seems to have been what is now called ' a three decker,' for there were ' three galleries or corridors,' from the lowest of which, the sailors went down by ladders to the hold. In the middle one, were thirty rooms, in each of which were four beds ; the floors were paved with small stones 41 European ships were sheathed with sheet lead in the 17th century, at which time ulso wooden sheathing was in vogue. See Colliers' Diet. Vol. i. Art. England. Chap. Ib.J for Hiero, two centuries B. C. 147 of different colors, (mosaics) representing scenes from Homer's Iliad The doors, windows and ceilings were finished with ' wonderful art,' and embellished with every kind of ornament. The kitchen js mentioned as on this deck and next to the stern, also three large rooms for eating. In the third gallery were lodgings for the soldiers, and a gymnasium or place of exercise. There were also gardens in this vessel, in which various plants were arranged with taste ; and among them walks, propor- tioned to the magnitude of the ship, and shaded by arbors of ivy and vines, whose roots were in large vessels filled with earth. Adjacent to these was a room, named the ' apartment of Venus,' the floor of which was paved with agate and other precious stones : the walls, roof and windows were of cypress wood, and adorned with vases, statues, paint- ings, and inlaid with ivory. Another room, the sides and windows of which were of box wood, contained a library ; the ceilings represented the heavens, and on the top or outside was a sun dial. Another apart- ment was fitted up for bathing. The water was heated in three large copper cauldrons, and the bathing vessel was made of a single stone of variegated colors. It contained sixty gallons. There were also ten sta- bles placed on both sides of the vessel, together with straw and corn for the horses, and conveniences for the horsemen and their servants. At certain distances, pieces of timber projected, upon which were piles of wood, ovens, mills, and other contrivances for the services of life. At the ship's head was a large reservoir of fresh water, formed of plank and pitched. Near it was a conservatory for fish, lined with sheet lead, and containing salt water ; although the well or hold was extremely deep, one man, Atheneus says, could pump out all the water that leaked into her, by a screw pump which Archimedes adapted to that purpose. There were probably other hydraulic machines on board, for the plants, oathing apparatus, and kitchen, &c. The upper decks were supplied with water by pipes of earthenware and of lead ; the latter, most like- ly, extending from pumps or other engines that raised the liquid ; for there is reason to believe that machines analogous to forcing pumps were at that time known. The ' Syracusan' was laden with corn and sent as a present to the King of Egypt, upon which her name was changed to that of the ' Alex- andria.' Magnificent as this vessel was, she appears to have been sur- passed by one subsequently built by Ptolemy Philopater ; a description of which is given by Montfaucon, in the fourth volume of his antiquities. For the Spiral Pump of Wirtz, see the end of the 3d Book 148 Chain Pump. [Book 1. CHAP T E R XVII. THE CHAIN PUMP— Not mentioned by Vitruvius— Its supposed origin— Resemblance between it and the common pump — Not used by the Hindoos, Egyptians, Greeks or Romans — Derived from China- Description of the Chinese Pump and the various modes of propelling it— Chain Pump from Agricola— Paternoster Pumps — Chain Pump ofBesson — Old French Pump from Belidor — Superiority of the Chi- nese Pump — Carried by the Spaniards and Dutch to their Asiatic possessions — Best mode of making and using it — Wooden Chains — Chain Pump in British ships of war — Dampier — Modern improvements — Dutch Pump — Cole's Pump and experiments — Notice of Chain Pumps in the American Navy — De- scription of those in the United States Ship Independence — Chinese Pump introduced into America by Van Braam — Employed in South America — Recently introduced into Egypt — Used as a substitute for Water Wheels — Peculiar feature in Chinese ship building — Its advantages. The chain pump, although not described by Vitruvius, is introduced at this place, because it seems to be the connecting link between the chain of pots and the machine of Ctesibius. Some writers suppose it to be derived from the former ; nor is the supposition improbable. Numerous local cir- cumstances would frequently prevent the chain of pots from being used in a vertical position, and when its direction deviated considerably from the perpendicular, some mode of protecting the loaded vessels while as- cending rugged banks, &c. became necessary. An open trough or wood- en gutter through which they might glide, was a simple and obvious de- vice, and one that would occur to most people ; but such a contrivance could not have been long in use before the idea must have been suggested, that pieces of plank or any solid substance which would occupy the entire width of the gutter, might be substituted for the pots, since they would obviously answer the same purpose by pushing the water before them when drawn up by the chain. If this was the process by which the transi- tion of the chain of pots into the chain pump Avas effected, there can be little doubt, that old engineers soon perceived the advantages of covering the top of the gutter, and converting it into a tube ; as the machine could then be used with equal facility, in a perpendicular, as in any other position. It may be deemed of little consequence to ascertain the circumstances which led to the invention of the chain pump ; yet a knowledge of the period when this took place would be of more than usual interest, on ac- count of the analogy between it and the ordinary pump, and of the rela- tionship that appears to exist between them. The introduction of a tube through which water is raised by pallets or pistons, is so obvious an ap- proach to the latter, that it becomes desirable to ascertain which of them bears the relation of parent to the other, or which of them preceded the other. But to what ancient people are we to look for its authors ? Not to the Hindoos, or the Egyptians, for it is incredible that either of these people should have lost it, if it was ever in their possession. Its cheap and simple construction — its efficiency and extensive application, would certainly have induced them to retain it in preference to others of less value. Nor does it appear to have been known to the Greeks ; for their navigators would never have employed the screw as a ship pump, (as Atheneus says they did,) if they had been acquainted with this machine. Of all hydraulic tube machines, the screw seems the most unsuitable for such a purpose. It requires to be inclined at an angle that is not only inconvenient but generally unattainable in ships. But if the Greeks had Chap. 17.J Chain Pump. 149 the chain pump, the Romans would have received it from them ; whereas, from the silence of Vitruvius, it is clear that his countrymen were not ac quainted with it. As an engineer, he would have been sensible of its value, and would have preferred it in many cases, in raising water from coffer-dams, docks, &c. to the tympanum and noria, which he informs us were employed in such cases.* Arch. Book v, Cap. 12. Moreover, if it was employed by the Romans, it would have been preserved in use, as well as other machines for the same purpose, either in Europe or in their African or Asiatic possessions ; but we have no proof of its use at all in any of the latter, nor yet in the former, till comparatively modern times. But if the origin and improvement of the chain pump is due to one nation more than another, to whom are we indebted for it 1 To a people as distinguished for their ingenuity and the originality of their inventions, as for their antiquity and the peculiarity of many of their customs ; and who by their system of excluding all foreigners from entering the country have long concealed from the rest of the world many primitive contrivan- ces, viz. the CHINESE. This singular people appear to have had little or no communication with the celebrated nations of antiquity, a cir- cumstance to which their ignorance of the chain pump may be attribut- ed. This machine has been used in China from time immemorial, and as connected with their agriculture, has undergone no change what- ever. The great requisites in their husbandry " are manure and wa- ter, and to obtain these, all their energies are devoted." Of such im- portance is this instrument to irrigate the soil, that every laborer is in possession of one ; its use being " as familiar as that of a hoe to every Chinese husbandman," " an implement to him not less useful than a spade to an European peasant." It is worthy of remark too, that they often use it, in what may be supposed to have been its original form, viz. as an open gutter ; a circumstance which serves to strengthen the opinion of its origin and great antiquity among them. Like the peculiarity of their compass, which with them points to the south, it is a proof of their not having received it from other people. " The Chinese [observes Staunton] appear indeed to have strong claims to the credit of having been indebted only to them- selves for the invention of the tools, necessary in the primary and neces- sary arts of life; these have something peculiar in their construction, some difference, often indeed slight ; but always clearly indicating that, whether better or worse fitted for the same purposes as those in use in other coun- tries, the one did not serve as a model for the other."b But the general form of chain pumps in China is that of a square tube or trunk made of plank ; and of various dimensions acccording to the power employed to work them. Those that are portable, with one of which every peasant is furnished, are commonly six or seven inches in diameter, and from eight to ten feet in length. Some are even longer, for Van Braam, who was several years in China, and who, as a native of Hol- land, was a close observer of every hydraulic device, when speaking of them, remarks, that " they use them to raise water to the height often or twelve feet ; a single man works this machine, and even carries it wherever it is wanted, as I have had occasion to remark several times in the province of Quangtong near Vampou."c A small wheel or roller is attached to each end of the trunk, over which an endless chain is passed. Pallets, or a It was preferred by the architect of Black Friars Bridge, London, to raise the water from the Caissons. b Embassy to China. Lon. 1708. Vol. iii, 102. c Embassy of the Dutch E. I. Company. Lon. 1798. Vol. i, 75. 150 Chinese Chain Pump. [Book I square pieces of plank, fitted so as to fill (like the piston of a comraor pump) the bore of the tube, are secured to the chain. When the machine is to be used, one end of the trunk is placed in the water, a.nd the other rests on the bank over which it is to be raised. The upper wheel or roller is put in motion by a crank applied to its axle, and the pallets as they ascend the trunk, push the water that enters it before them, till it is discharged above. In machines of this description one half of the chain is always outside of the tube and exposed to view, but in others the trunk is divided by a plank, so as to form two separate tubes, one above another, and hence the chain rises in the lower one and returns down the upper. These pumps are represented as exceedingly effective, delivering a volume of water equal to the bore of the trunk. Whenever a breach occurs in one of their canals, or repairs are to be made, hundreds of the neighboring peasants are summoned to the work, and in a few hours will empty a large section of it by these machines. When a pump is intended to raise a great quantity of water at once, it is made proportionably larger, and is moved by a very simple tread wheel : or rather by a series of wooden arms projecting from various parts of a lengthened axle, which imparts motion to the chain, as represented in tho figure. No. 64. Chinese Chain Pump. These arms are shaped like the letter T, and the upper side of eacli is made smooth for the foot to rest on. The axle turns upon two upright pieces of wood, kept steady by a pole stretched across them. The ma- chine being fixed, men treading upon the projecting arms, and supporting themselves upon the beam across the uprights, communicate a rotary mo- tion to the chain, the pallets attached to which draw up a constant and copious stream of water. Another mode of working them, which Staun- ton observed only at Chu-san, was by yoking a buffalo, or other animal, to a large horizontal cog wheel, working into a vertical one, fixed on the Chap. 17.1 Paternoster Pumps. 151 same shaft with the wheel that imparts motion to the chain, as represent- ed in figures 49 and 54.a The description of this machine by Staunton is similar to that previously given by the missionaries, and they enumerate the various modes of propelling it which he has mentioned.11 But Nieuhoff, with the characteristic sagacity of his countrymen, noticed either these, or some other machines for the same purpose, propelled by wind. When speaking of the populous city of Caoyeu, and its environs, he observes, " they boast likewise of store of windmills, whose sails are made of mats. The great product of the country consists of rice, which the peasant stands obliged to look after very narrowly, lest it perish upon the ground by too much moisture, or too much heat and drought. The windmills, therefore, are to draw out the water in a moist season, and to let it in as they think fit." That part of the country, he continues, is " full of such mills." Several of them are represented in a plate, but without showing the pumps moved by them.c These were very likely to elicit the notice of a Dutchman ; for draining mills, worked by horses and wind, have been used in Holland since the 14th century. They consisted however principally of the noria and chain of pots. It is uncertain when the chain pump was first employed in Europe ; whether it was made known by Marco Paulo, Ibn Batuta, or subsequent iravelers in China, or was previously developed and introduced into use, independently of any information from abroad. An imperfect machine is described by several old authors. This was a common pump log, or wooden cylinder placed perpendicularly in a well ; its upper end reach- ing above the level to which the water was to be raised, and having a lateral spout, as in ordinary pumps, for the discharge. A pulley was se- cured to one side of the log near the lower orifice, and a drum or wheel above the upper one. One end of a rope was let down the cylinder, and after being passed over the pulley was drawn up on the outside, and both ends were then spliced or united over the drum. To this rope, a number of leathern bags or stuffed globular cushions were secured at regular dis- tances. The diameter of each was equal to the bore of the cylinder. Ribs were nailed across the periphery of the drum, and between these, the cushions were so arranged as to fall, in order to prevent the rope from slipping. When the drum was put in motion, the cushions entered in suc- cession the lower orifice of the pump, (which was two or three feet below the surface of the water,) and pushed up the liquid before them, till it es- caped through the spout. Machines of this description were formerly employed in mines ; chains of iron being substituted for the ropes, and sometimes globes of metal in place of the cushions. The latter are figured by Kircher in his Mundus Subterraneus, Tom. ii, 194. Among the earliest of modern authors who have described these pumps is Agricola. He has given five differ- ent figures of them, but they differ merely in the apparatus for working them, according to the power employed, whetherof men, animals, or water. The following cut, No. 65 is from his ' De Re Metallica.' It exhibits two separate views of the lower end of the pump, showing the mode of attach- ing the pulley, and the passage of the rope and cushions over it. From the resemblance of the chains or ropes and cushions, to the rosary, or string of beads on which Roman catholics count their prayers, these machines a Staunton, Vol. iii, 315. b Duhalde's China. Paris, 1735. Tom. ii, 66, 67. c Ogilvy's Translation. Lon. 1673, pp. 34, 85 — and Histoire G6nerale. Amsterdam, 1749. Tom. viii, 81, 82. 152 Chain Pump from Agricola.. [Book I. becaraa known as ' Paternoster pumps.' For the same reason they are named CTiapelet by the French, in common with the chain of pots. No. 65. Chain Pump from Agricola. The next author who describes these pumps, that has fallen in our way, is Besson. Plate 50, of his ' Theatre Des Instrumens,' is a representation of a double one. Two cylinders are placed parallel to each other, so that the chain passes through both. It is shown as worked by wind. A ver- tical shaft with sails is secured under the dome of an open tower ; a cog wheel on the lower end of the shaft turns a trundle or pinion which is fix- ed on the horizontal axle of the drum, that carries the chain. Thus, when the wind turned the sails, water was raised through one of the cylinders, and when their motion was reversed by change of the wind, the liquid was elevated in the other. Instead of stuffed cushions, as in the preceding figure, pistons, resembling somewhat those of fire engines, or forcing pumps, i. e. double cupped leathers are shown, (( Coquilles fond contre fond} 'J the earliest instance of their use that we have met with. Besson, who appears to claim the addition of the second cylinder as an improve- ment of his own, was a French mathematician and mechanician, and spent a great part of his life in mechanical researches ; in the prose- cution of which he visited foreign countries. His ' Theatre' contains such devices as he collected abroad as well as those invented by himself. It was published at Lyons, with commentaries, after his decease, by Beroald, but the privilege to print was accorded to himself, ten years pre- vious to the date of its publication, i. e. in 1568.a Kircher also figures the chain pump with two cylinders. The imper- fect mechanism and enormous friction of these old machines confined their application to a limited extent in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. Desaguliers left them unnoticed ; and at the time Switzer wrote (1729) they had been discontinued in England. "I might (he ob- serves) from Bockler and others, have produced almost an infinite number a Bayle, in his dictionary, says Beroald was twenty-two years of age when he publish- ed " some commentaries on the mechanics of James Besson ; but he had scarce tried his fortune that way, when he ran after the philsopher's stone." Chap. 17.] Old FrencJi Chain Pump. 153 of drafts of engines, which are placed under the terms Budromia and Hydrotechnema, &c. the first signifying the methods of raising water by buckets ; and the other by globes or figures of any regular shape, fixed to a rope, which rope being fastened at each end, and passing through an elm or other pipe, which reaches from the bottom of a well to the height to which the water ict to be conveyed, brings up the water with it ; but these kini of engines 'heing out of date, I shall pass over them."a Belidor has described one that v\*as used in the ship yards and docks at Marseilles, which is represented in No. 66. The lower pulley was dispensed with ; and the face of the pallets or pistons, which were hemispheres of wood, were leathered. It was worked by two galley slaves, who were relieved every hour. No. 66. Old French Chain Pump. Such appears to have been the general construction of the chain pump in Europe, until an increasing intercourse with the Chinese led to the in- troduction of the machine as made by that people. The credit of this is, we believe, due to the Dutch. From the peculiar location of Holland with regard to the sea, hydraulic engines have at all times been of too much importance to escape the examination of her intelligent travelers. But it perhaps will be said, there is no essential or very obvious distinction between the old chain pump of Europe and that of China : admitting this, still there must have been something peculiar either in the construction or mode of working the latter, to have produced the superior results ascrib- ed to them ; and to have elicited the admiration of the Jesuits and all the early travelers in China. No stronger proof of their superiority need be adduced, than the fact of their being carried in the 17th century from China to Manilla by the Spaniards, and to Batavia by the Dutch* Hence they were previously unknown in those parts of Asia, as much so as in Holland and Spain. Navarrette mentions them with great praise : he thought there was not a better invention in the world to draw water from wells and tanks.0 And Gamelli (in 1695) describes them as machines, which, in his opinion, Chinese ingenuity alone could invent/1 Montanus mentioned them as novel. He describes one as an " engine made of four square plank, holding great store of water, which with iron chains, they aHydrostaticks, 313. b Histoire G6n£rale, Tom. viii, 81. clbid. dlbid, Tom. vii, 267 20 154 Chain Pumps in Ships. [Book L hale up like buckets."8 How such intelligent men as the Jesuits undoubt- edly were, could use such language, if an effective chain pump was then known in Europe, it is difficult to conceive. Although the Chinese pump has been mentioned by all travelers, no one has entered sufficiently into details, to enable a mechanic to realize the construction of the chain — mode of fixing the pallets — where they are attached to it, (at the centre, or on one side,) — nor how they are car- ried over the wheels or rollers. One cause of the superiority of these oriental machines over those of Europe, was the small degree of fric- tion from the rubbing of the pallets, when passing through the trunk ; wood sliding readily over wood, when both are wet : another was the accuracy with which the working parts were made. The experience of ages, and the immense number of workmen constantly employed in fabricating them, through every part of the empire, had brought them to great perfection: but the position in which they are worked, also contributed to increase the quan- tity of water raised by them, for except in particular locations, they are al- ways inclined to the horizon, as shown in No. 64. Now it has been ascer- tained that to construct and use a chain pump to the best advantage, the dis- tance between the pallets should be equal to their breadth, and the inclination of the trunk about 24°, 21'. When thus arranged, according to Belidor, it produces a maximum effect.b The author just named speaks of one at Strasburgh, the chain of which was made of WOOD, which being light and flexible, was very efficient, requiring much less labor to work it than those in which the chains were iron. This leads us to a remark which we do not recollect to have seen in any English work, viz. that in most if not in all the Chinese smaller pumps, the chains are of that material. One of them is thus described by the Jesuits : " Une machine hydraulique, dont le jeu est aussi simple que la composition. Elle est composee d'une chaine de bois, ou d'une sorte de chapelet de petites planches quarrees de six ou sept pouces, qui sont comme enfilee parallelement a d'egales dis- tances. Cette chaine passe dans un tube quarre," &c.c In the latter part of the 17th century, chain pumps were used in British men-of-war. In Dampier's Voyage to New Holland in the 'Roe- buck,' a national vessel, he mentions one. This ship on returning home sprung a leak near the Island of Ascension, and the water poured in so fast, he relates, that " the chain pump could not keep her free — I set the hand pump to work also, and by ten o'clock, sucked her — I wore the ship and put her head to the southward, to try if that would ease her, and on that tack the chain pumjt just kept her free." English ships of war now carry four of those pumps, and three common ones, all fixed in the same well ; • whereas it would appear from Dampier, that they had formerly but one of each. " In the afternoon, (he observes,) my men were all employed pumping with both pumps." Shortly afterwards the ship foundered.d The vessels of Columbus were furnished with pumps ; and so were those of Magalhanes ; but these were probably the common instruments referred to above as ' hand pumps.'6 In Dampier's time chain pumps were very imperfect. The chain, and the wheel, which carried it, were inaccurately and badly made ; hence when the machine was worked, the former was constantly liable to slip over the latter ; and the consequent violent jerks, from the great weight of the water on. the pallets, often burst the chain asunder, and under cir- 81 Atlas Chinensis, translated by Ogilvy. Lon, 1671, page 675. b Arch. Hydraulique, Tore, i, 363. c Histoire Generale, Tom. viii, 82, and Duhalde Tom. ii, 66. d Dampier's Voyages, Vol. iii, 191, 193. elrving's Columbus Vol ii, 127, and Burney's Voyages, Vol. i, 112. Chap. 17.] British Chain Pump. 155 cumstances which rendered it difficult and sometimes impossible to repair it. These defects, which in some cases led to the loss of vessels and of hu- man life, at length excited the attention of European mechanics, and in the following century, numerous projects were brought forward to im- prove the chain pump, or to supersede it. In 1760, Mr. Abbot invented a ship pump, which was represented as of a very simple construction, and which threw " five hundred hogsheads of water in a minute ; [!] the handle by which it is worked, is in the manner of a common winch, which turns with the utmost facility either to the right or the left."a In the following year, the States of Holland granted to M. Liniere, 4, and Vol. ii, part iii, p. 110. In the the plates of Vol. iii, is a figure of one. Figures of the excrescence or sucking part of the remora, and of .the feet of the house-fly, may be seen in Dr. Brewster's Letters on Natural Magic. Chap. 1.] The Remora. 185 acts as a sucker ; while that curious animal the cuttle fish secures the vic- tims that fall into its fatal embraces by the suckers on its arms. The prodigious pressure that, at great depths, unites these inhabitants of the sea to their prey, led man to employ them to hunt the sea for his benefit as well as their own. Both the remora and lamprey tribe have been used for this purpose. Columbus when on the coast of St. Domingo was greatly surprised on beholding the Indians of that island fishing with them. " They had a small fish, the flat head of which was furnished with numerous suck- ers, by which it attached itself so firmly to any object as to be torn in pieces rather than abandon its hold. Tying a long string to the tail, the In- dians permitted it to swim at large : it generally kept near the surface till it perceived its prey, when darting down swiftly it attached itself to the throat of a fish, or to the under shell of a tortoise, when both were drawn up by the fisherman." Ferdinand Columbus saw a shark caught in this manner.* The same mode of fishing was followed at Zanguebar, on the eastern coast of Africa. The inhabitants of the coast when fishing for turtle, " take a living sucking fish or remora^ and fastening a couple of strings to it, (one at the head and the other at the tail) they let the sucking fish down into the water on the turtle ground, among the half grown or young turtle; and when they find that the fish hath fastened himself to the back of a tur- tle, as he will soon do, they draw him and the turtle up together. This way of fishing as I have heard is also used at Madagascar."1" The remora was well known to the ancients. History has preserved a fabulous account of their having the power to stop a vessel under sail, by attaching themselves to her rudder. A Roman ship belonging to a fleet, it is said, was thus arrested, when she " stoode stil as if she had lien at anker, not stirring a whit out of her place." There is another illustra- tion of the enormous pressure that fishes endure at great depths. The small volume of air that is contained in the bladder, and by the expansion and contraction of which they ascend and descend, is at the bottom of the sea compressed into a space many times smaller than when they swim near the surface. (At 33 feet from the surface it occupies but one half.) Hence, it frequently occurs that when such fish are suddenly drawn up, (as the cod on the banks of Newfoundland) the membrane bursts, in con- sequence of the diminished pressure, and the air rushing into the abdomen, forces the intestines out of the mouth. From a similar cause, blood is forced out of the ears of divers, when the bell that contains them is quickly drawn up. This pressure is also evinced in the fact that the timber of foundered vessels never rises, because the pores become completely filled with water by the pressure of the superincumbent mass, and the wood then becomes almost ' heavy as iron.' The pressure of the atmosphere on liquids is equally obvious. When a bucket or other vessel is sunk in water and then raised in an inverted position, the air being excluded from acting on the surface of the liquid within, still presses on that without, so that the water is suspended in the vessel ; and if the under surface of the liquid could be kept level and at rest, water might be transported in buckets thus turned upside down, as effectually as in the ordinary mode of conveying it " The experiment with a goblet or tumbler presents a very neat illustra- tion. One of these filled with water, and having a piece of writing paper laid over it, and held close till the vessel be inverted, will retain the liquid a Irving's Columbus, Vol. i, 273. b Dampier's Voyages, Vol. ii, part ii, 108. 24 186 Atmospheric Pressure on 'Liquids. [Book II within it. In this experiment the paper merely preserves the liquid sur- face level : it remains perfectly free and loose ; and so far from being close to the edge of the glass, it may, while the latter is held in a horizon- tal position, be withdrawn several lines from it without the water escaping ; and it may be pierced full of small holes with the same effect. If an inverted vessel be filled with any material that excludes the air, and whose specific gravity is greater than that of water, when lowered into the latter, the contents will descend and be replaced by the water. A bottle filled with sand, shot, &c. and inverted in water, will have its contents exchanged for the latter. As these substances, however, do not perfectly Jill the vessel, and of course do not exclude all the air, the experiment succeeds better when the vessel contains heavy liquids, as mercury, sulphuric acid, &c. It is said that negroes in the West Indies often insert the long neck of a bottle filled with water, into the bung-holes of rum puncheons, when the superior gravity of the water (in this case) descends, and is gradually replaced with the lighter spirit. In the preceding examples and those in subsequent chapters, it will be found that wherever a vacuity or partial vacuum is formed, the adjacent air, by the pressure above, rushes in and drives before it the object that intervenes, until the void is filled. If the nozzle of a pair of bellows be closed, either by the finger or by a small valve opening outwards ; and a short pipe, the lower end of which is placed in water, be secured to the opening in the under board which is covered by the clapper ; then if the bellows be opened, the pressure of the atmosphere will drive the water up the pipe to fill the enlarged cavity, and by then closing the boards, the liquid will be expelled through the nozzle. Bellows thus arranged become sucking or atmospheric, and forcing pumps. When the orifice of a syringe is inserted into a vessel of water and the piston drawn up, the air having no way to enter the vacuity thus formed than by the small orifice under the surface of the liquid, presses the water before it into the body of the syringe. As every machine described in this book, and most of those in the next one, both proves and illustrates atmospheric pressure on liquids, we need not enlarge further upon it here. There are however some other parti- culars relating to it, which are necessary to be known : first, that its pressure is limited ; and secondly, that it varies in intensity at different parts of the earth, according to their elevation above the surface of the sea. These important facts are clearly established in the accounts given of the discovery of the air's pressure, a sketch of which can scarcely be out of place here, since it was a pump that first drew the attention of modern philosophers to the subject, and which thereby became the proximate cause of a revolution in philosophical research, that will ever be consi- dered an epoch in the history of science. Chap. 2.] Discovery of Atmospheric Pressure. 187 CHAP TER II. Discovery of atmospheric pressure— Circumstances which led to it— Galileo— Torricelli— Beautiful experiment of the latter— Controversy respecting the results — Pascal — his demonstration of the cause of the ascent of water in pumps — Invention of the air-pump — Barometer and its various applications — Intensity of atmospheric pressure different at different parts of the earth — A knowledge of this necessary to pump-makers — The limits to which water may be raised in atmospheric pumps known to ancient pump-makers. In the year 1641, a pump-maker of Florence made an atmospheric, or what was called a sucking pump, the pipe of which extended from 50 to 60 feet above the water. When put in operation, it was of course inca- pable of raising any over 32 or 33 feet. Supposing this to have been occasioned by some defect in the construction, the pump was carefully examined, and being found perfect, the operation was repeated, but with the same results. After numerous trials, the superintendent of the Grand Duke's water works, according to whose directions it had been made, consulted Galileo, who was a native of the city, and then resided in it. Previous to this occurrence, it was universally supposed that water was raised in pumps by an occult power in nature, which resisted with con- siderable force all attempts to make a void, but wrhich, when one was made, used the same force to fill it, by urging the next adjoining substance, if a fluid, into the vacant space. Thus in pumps, when the air was with- drawn from their upper part by the ' sucker,' nature, being thus violated, instantly forced water up the pipes. No idea was entertained by philo- sophers at this or any preceding period, that we know of, that this force was limited ; that it would not as readily force water up a perpendicular tube, from which the air was withdrawn, 100 feet high as well as 20 — to the top of a high building as well as to that of a low one. When the circumstances attending the trial of the pump at Florence "were placed before Galileo, (his attention having probably never before been so closely directed to the subject) he could only reply, that nature's abhorrence to a vacuum was limited, and that it " ceased to operate above the height of 32 feet." This opinion given at the moment, it is believed was not satisfactory to himself; and his attention having now been roused, there can be no doubt that he would have discovered the real cause, had he lived, especially as he was then aware that the atmosphere did exert a definite pressure on objects on the surface of the earth. But at that period this illustrious man was totally blind, nearly 80 years of age, and within a few months of his death. The discovery is however, in some measure, due to him. It has also been supposed that he communicated his ideas on the subject to Torricelli, who lived in his family and acted as his amanuensis during the last three months of his life. It was in 1643 that Torricelli announced the great discovery that water was raised in pumps by the pressure of the air. This he established by very satisfactory experiments. The apparatus in his first one, was made in imitation of the Florentine pump. He procured a tube 60 feet long, and secured it in a perpendicular position, with its lower end in water ; then having by a syringe extracted the air at its upper end, he found the water rose only 32 or 33 feet, nor could he by any effort induce it t > 188 Torricelli. [Book II. ascend higher. He then reduced the length of the pipe to 40 feet, without any better success. It now occurred to him, that if it really was the atmosphere which supported this column of water in the pipe, then, if he employed some other liquid, the specific gravity of which, compared with that of water, was known, a column of such liquid would be sustained in the tube, of a length proportioned to its gravity. This beautiful thought he soon submitted to the test of experiment, and by a very neat and simple apparatus. Quicksilver being 14 times heavier than water, he selected it as the most suitable, since the apparatus would be more manageable ; and from the small dimensions of the requisite tube, a syringe to exhaust the air could be dispensed with. He therefore took a glass tube about four feet long, sealed at one end and open at the other. This he completely filled with quicksilver, which of course expelled the air ; then placing his finger on the open end, he inverted the tube, and introduced the open end below the surface of a quantity of mercury in an open vessel ; then moving the tube into a vertical position, he withdrew his finger, when part of the mercury descended into the basin, leaving a vacuum in the upper part of the tube, while the rest was supported in it at the height of about 28 inches, as he had suspected, being one-fourteenth of the height of the aqueous column. This simple and truly ingenious experiment wras fre- quently varied and repeated, but always with the same result, and must have imparted to Torricelli the most exquisite gratification.8 Accounts of Torricelli's experiments were soon spread throughout Eu- rope, and every where caused an unparalleled excitement among philoso- phers. This was natural, for his discovery prostrated the long cherished hypothesis of nature's abhorence of a vacuum; and at the same time, opened unexplored regions to scientific research. It met however with much opposition, particularly from the Jesuits ; in many of whom it is said to have excited a degree of ' horror' similar to that experienced by them on the publication of Galileo's dialogues on the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems. They and others resisted the new doctrine with great perse- verance, and even endeavored to reconcile the results of the experiments with thejuga vacui they so long had cherished. It was ingeniously con- tended that the experiment with quicksilver no more proved that the force which sustained it in the tube was the pressure of the atmosphere, than the column of water did in the first experiment; allowing this, it proved that this force, whatever it was, varied in its effects on different liquids, accord- ing to their specific gravity ; a fact previously unknown, and apparently inconsistent with nature's antipathy to a void, which might be supposed to produce the same effects on all fluids — to have as great an abhorence to mercury as to water. During the discussion great expectations were entertained by the advo- cates of the new doctrine from Torricelli ; but unfortunately, this philoso- pher died suddenly in the midst of his pursuits and in the very vigor of manhood, viz. in his 39th year. This took place in 1647. The subject was however too interesting, and too important in its consequences, to be lost sight of. He had opened a new path into the fields of science, and philosophers in every part of Europe had rushed into it with too much ardor to be stopped by his decease. Among the most eminent of those aThe apparatus employed in these experiments was not original with Torricelli. The air thermometer of C. Drebble, the famous alchemist, who died in 1634, was of the same construction, except that the upper end of the inverted tube was swelled into a bulb. It is frequently figured in Fludd's works. Chap. 2.] Pascal and Perrier. 189 was Pascal, a French mathematician and divine. In 1646 he undertook to verify the experiments of Torricelli, and still further to vary them. He used tubes of glass forty feet long, having one end closed to avoid the use of a syringe. He filled one with wine and another with water, and inverted them into basins containing the same liquids, after the manner of Torricelli's mercurial experiment. As the specific gravity of these liquids was not the same, he anticipated a difference in the length of the two co- lumns ; and such was the fact. The water remained suspended at the height of thirty-one feet one inch and four lines; while the lighter wine stood at thirty-three feet three inches. Pascal was attacked with great virulence by Father Noel, a Parisian Jesuit, who resisted the new doctrine with infuriate zeal, as if it also was heresy, like Galileo's doctrine of the earth's motion round the sun. After making several experiments, one at length occured to Pascal, which he foresaw would, if successful, effectually silence all objectors. He reasoned thus : If it is really the weight or pressure of the atmosphere, that sustains water in pumps, and mercury in the tube, then, the intensity of this pressure will be less on the top of a mountain than at its foot, be- cause there is a less portion of air over its summit than over its base ; if therefore a column of mercury is sustained at 28 or any other number of inches at the base of a very high mountain, this column ought to diminish gradually as the tube is carried up to the top; whereas, if the atmosphere has no connection with the ascent of liquids, (as contended) then the mer- cury will remain the same at all elevations, at the base as at the summit. Being at Paris, he addressed a letter to his brother-in-law, M. Perrier, (in 1647) from which the following is an extract : " I have thought of an experiment, which, if it can be executed with accuracy, will alone be suf- ficient to elucidate this subject. It is to repeat the Torricellian experi- ment several times in the same day, with the same tube, and the same mercury ; sometimes at the foot, sometimes at the summit of a mountain five or six hundred fathoms in height. By this means we shall ascertain whether the mercury in the tube will be at the same or a different height at each of these stations. You perceive with- out doubt that this experiment is decisive ; for if the column of mercury be lower at the top of the hill than at the base, as I think it will, it clear- ly shows that the pressure of the air is the sole cause of the suspension of the mercury in the tube, and not the horror of a vacuum ; as it is evi- dent there is a longer column of air at the bottom of the hill than at the top ; but it would be absurd to suppose that nature abhors a vacuum more at the base than at the summit of a hill. For if the suspension of the mercury in the tube is owing to the pressure of the air, it is plain it must be equal to a column of air, whose diameter is the same with that of the mercurial column, and whose height is equal to that of the atmosphere, from the surface of the mercury in the basin. Now the base remaining the same, it is evident the pressure will be in proportion to the height of the column, and that the higher the column of air is, the longer will be the column of mercury that will be sustained." This expcrimen- tum crucis, was made on the 19th September, 164S, the year after Torri- celli's death, on the Puy de Dome, near Clermont, the highest mountain in France ; and the result was just as Pascal had anticipated. The mercury fell in the tube as M. Perrier ascended with it up the mountain, and when he reached the summit it was three inches lower than when at the base. The experiment was repeated on different sides of the mountain, and continued by Perrier till 1651, but always with the same results. Pas- cal made others on the top of some of the steeples in Paris ; and all 190 Limits of Atmospheric Pressure [Book II. proved the same important truth, viz. that the pressure of the atmosphere was that mysterious power, which under the name of nature's abhorrence to a vacuum had so long eluded the researches of philosophers. The sub- ject was taken up in England by Boyle, who pursued it with unremitted ardor, and whose .labors have immortalized his name ; but it was Germany that bore off the most valuable of the prizes which the discovery offered to philosophers. The Torricellian experiment gave rise to the AIR PUMP ; and in 1654, a Prussian philosopher, a mathematician and a magistrate, Otto Guerricke, of Magdeburgh, made public experiments with it at Ratis- bon, before the emperor of Germany and several electors. Some authors ascribe the invention of the pump to Candido del Buono, one of the mem- bers of the Academic del Cimento at Florence, and intimate that the first essays with it were only made by Guerricke. The apparatus of Torricelli, i. e. the glass tube and basin of mercury, was named a baroscope, and afterwards a barometer, because it measured the pressure of the atmosphere at all elevations ; hence to it, engineers in all parts of the earth may have recourse, to determine the perpendicular length of the pipes of atmospheric pumps. Another application of the barometer was the natural result of Perrier's first experiment on the Puy de Dome. As he ascended that mountain with it, the mercury kept falling in exact proportion to the elevation to which the instrument was carried ; hence it is obvious, that when the tube is properly graduated, it will measure the height of mountains, and all other elevations to which it can be carried. By it, aeronauts deter- mine the height to which they ascend in balloons. The observations of Perrier were continued daily from 1649 to 1651, during which he per- ceived that the height of the column slightly varied with the temperature, wind, rain, and other circumstances of the atmosphere ; and hence the instrument indicated changes of weather, and became known and is still used as a " weather glass." The extent of these variations is about three inches, generally ranging from twenty-eight to thirty-one, and are principally confined to the temperate zones. In tropical regions, the pressure is nearly uniform, the mercury standing at about thirty inches throughout the year. These facts have an important bearing on our sub- ject; for an atmospheric pump or siphon, with a perpendicular pipe thirty- four or thirty-five feet long, might operate during certain states of the at- mosphere, while in others it could not ; and in some parts of the earth it would be altogether useless. It will appear in the sequel, that the physical properties of the atmos- phere which we have enumerated, must necessarily be understood, in order perfectly to comprehend the action of the machines we have to de- scribe. As regards the aerial pressure, its limits and variation at different altitudes, we need only remark, that a sucking pump or a siphon, which raises water thirty-three feet in New-York and Buenos Ay res, London arid Calcutta, St. Petersburgh and Port Jackson in New Holland, could not, in the city of Mexico, elevate it over twenty-two feet; and at Quito, and Santa Fe de Bogota in South America, and Gondar the capital of Abyssinia twenty feet, on account of the great elevation of these cities ; (from the same cause, the pressure of the atmosphere on Mont Blanc is only about half that on the plains) and if Condamine and Humboldt, when on the summit of Pinchincha, had applied one to raise water there, or on the side of Antisana, at the spot where, from the great rarity or tenuity of the air, the face of the latter philosopher was streaming with blood, his attendant fainted, and the whole party exhausted, it would not have raised water over twelve or fourteen feet ; (the mercurv in the barometer fell Chap. 3.] Known to old Pump Makers. 191 to fourteen inches seven lines,) while on the highest ridge of the Hima- layas, it would scarcely raise it eight or ten feet. Without a knowledge of aerial pressure, it is obvious, that engineers who visit Mexico, and the upper regions of South America, &c. might get into a quandary greatly more perplexing than that in which the Florentine was, when he applied to Galileo : but we believe the period has nearly gone by, for mechanics to remain ignorant of those principles of science, upon which their profes- sions are based. It perhaps may be asked, Were the limits to which water can be raised by the atmosphere not known before Galileo's time 1 Undoubtedly they were. Pump makers must always have been acquainted with them ; al- though philosophers might not have noticed the fact or paid any attention to the subject. Why then did the Italian artists make such a one as that to which we have referred ? Simply because they were ordered to do so, as any mechanic would now do under similar circumstances : at the same time they declared that it would not raise the water, although they could not assign any reason for the assertion. It was indeed impossible for ancient pump makers to have remained ignorant of the extent to which their machines were applicable. A manufacturer of them would naturally extend their application, as occasions occurred, to wells of every depth, until he became familiar with the fact that the power which caused the water to ascend, was limited — and until he detected the limits. After using a pump with success, to raise water twenty-five or thirty feet, when he came to apply it to wells of forty or fifty feet in depth without lengthening the cylinder, he would necessarily learn the important, and to him mysterious fact, that the limits were then exceeded : and after probably going through similar examinations and consultations, as those which took place at Florence in the 17th century, the unvarying result would become so firmly established, that every workman- would learn it traditionally, as an essential part of his profession : and if in succeeding ages, the knowledge of it became lost, the experience of every individual pump maker must have soon taught him the same truth. Attempts then similar to those of the Florentine engineer occurred frequently before, but leading to no important result, the particulars of them have not been pre- served ; nor is it probable that those relating to the Italian experiment would have been, had not the father of modern philosophy been consul ted, and had not his pupil Torricelli taken up the subject. CHAPTER III. Ancient Experiments on air— Various applications of it— Siphons used in ancient Egypt— Primitive experiments with vessels inverted in water— Suspension of liquids in them— Ancient atmospheric sprink- ling pot— Watering Gardens with it— Probably referred to by St. Paul and also by Shakespeare— Glass sprinkling vessel, and a wine taster from Pompeii— Religious uses of sprinkling pots among the ancient heathen— Figure of one from Montfaucon— Vestals— Miracle of Tutia carrying water in a sieve, describ- ed and explained — Modern liquor taster and dropping tubes — Trick performed with various liquids Dy a Chinese juggler-Various frauds of the ancients with liquids— Divining cups. Notwithstanding the alledged ignorance of the ancients respecting the physical properties of the atmosphere, there are circumstances related in history which seem to indicate the reverse j or which, at any rate, show 194 Watering Plants with the Atmospheric Garden Pot. [Book II vessel and its contents were then raised, and the latter discharged al pleasure by removing the finger. As this was the ancient garden pot of the Greeks, Pliny probably re- fers to it when he speaks of ' sprinkling' water, oil, vinegar, &c. on plants and roots.8 It appears to have been continued in use for such purposes in Europe, through the middle ages ; and to a limited extent up to the 17th and 18th centuries.b Figures of it are, however, rarely to be met with, for it seems to have been nearly forgotten when the discovery of Torri- celli revived the old discussions on a vacuum; and though Boyle and others then occasionally referred to it, few, we believe, gave its figured Mont- faucon speaks of examining an ancient ' watering stick,' and also a 'sprinkling pot,' but unfortunately he has not described either.d Of a great number of old philosophical works that we have examined for the purpose of obtaining a figure, we met with it only in Fludd's works. The annexed cut is from his De Naturae Simia seu Tech- nica macrocosmi historia.' Oppenheim, 1618, p. 473. The mode of using it is too obvious to require expla- nation. It was pushed into water in the position re- presented ; the liquid entered through the openings in the bottom, driving the air out of the small orifice at the top ; and when it was filled, the person using it placed his finger or thumb on the orifice and then moved the vessel over the plants, &c. he wished to water ; discharging the contents by raising the finger. No. 69. Ancient Watering Pot. The application of this instrument as a ' garden pot' may sometimes be found portrayed in devices, rebuses, vignettes, &c. of old printers. In the title page of Godwin's Annals of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary, (a thin latin folio published in 1616) it is represented. No. 70 is a copy. There is a similar engraving on the title page of a volume on farming, &c. entitled ' Maison Rustique,' translated from the French, and published in London by John Islip, the same year. No. 70. Watering plants with the Atmospheric Sprinkling Pot. Independently of the sprinkling pot, the cut is interesting as exhibiting * Nat. Hist, xvii, 11 and 28 ; xix, 12 ; and xv, 17. b Dictionnaire De Trevoux, Art Arrosoir. c Boyle's Philosophical works, by Shaw, Lon. 1725. Vol. ii pp. 140, 144 d Italian Diary, Lon. 1725, 295. Chap. 3.] Sprinkler and Wine- Taster from Pompeii. 195 the ancient mode of transplanting. It appears that two men were gener- ally employed in the operation ; one to set the trees or plants, and another to water them ; a custom to which St. Paul alludes in 1 Cor. iii, 6 — 8. Sometimes ' he that watered' used two pots at the same time, holding one in each hand. As these vessels were not wholly disused in Shakespeare's time, it is probable, that to them he refers in Lear : Why, this would make a man, a man of salt, [tears] To use iiis eyes for garden water pots. Act 4, Scene 6. Modifications of them were adapted to various purposes by the ancients. They were used to drop water on floors in order to lay the dust, in both Greek and Roman houses. Their general form was that of a pitcher or vase, and their dimensions varied with their uses. Some of the small- est had but a single hole in the bottom. They formed part of the ordin- ary culinary apparatus, and were also used in religious services. Among the antiquities disinterred at Pompeii, some have been found. No. 71 represents one : it is of glass, the upper part of the tube or neck is want- ing, having been broken off. Perhaps this part resembled the form indi- cated by the dotted lines which we have added. No. 72, also of glass, has been pronounced ' a wine-taster, the air hav- ing been exhausted by sucking at the small end.' It is more likely that the wide part was inserted in- to wine jars or amphorse, and the cavity filled with that liquid precisely as in the sprinkling pot, and No. 71. Sprinkler and Wine-taster both from Pompeii. Samples then withdrawn by closing the small ori- fice with the finger as in the modern instrument, which is shewn at No 76, and as in the dropping tube, one form of which is figured at No. 77. The general form of No. 72 assimilates it to those drinking vessels of the ancients, which they held at a distance in front, and directed the stream issuing from the small end of the vessel into the mouth ; a mode still practised in some parts of the Mediterranean, and by the natives of Ceylon, Sumatra, Malabar, &c. One of the most singular facts connected with the religious institutions of the ancient heathen, was the extent to which they carried the practice of sprinkling : almost every thing was thus purified ; men, animals, trees, water, houses, food, clothing, carriages, &c. In performing the ceremony various implements were used to disperse the sacred liquid. A wisp made of horse hair attached to a handle was common. A branch from certain trees, and sometimes a small broom, were used ; in other cases perforated vessels were employed. Thus the Bramins in some ceremonies take a vessel of water, and after presenting it to the gods, they sprinkle the liquid with manguier leaves, on carriages, animals, &c. in others it is "sprinkled through a cullender with a hundred holes on the head of the father, mother and child."* The priests of the ancient Scandinavians also used a vessel " prepared like a watering pot, with which they sprinkled the altars, the pedestals of their gods, and also the men."b The a Sonnerat's Voyages. Vol. i, 134 and Vol. ii, 97. b Snorro's History of Scandinavia The chapter upon sacrifices is translated in Anderson's ' Bee,' vol. xvi, p. 20, Edin burgh, 1793. 196 Sprinkling Vessel Jrom Montfaucon. [Book IT. Jewish priests commonly used a branch of hyssop, but occasionally a piece of wool, and sometimes the fingers. " The priest shall dip his finger in the oil and sprinkle it." The Greeks and Romans had not only founts or vases of holy water in their temples for the use of worshippers, whc dipped their fingers into them, as Roman catholics and «others do at this day; but on particular occasions, priests or officers attended to purify the people by sprinkling. Thus, when the Emperor Julian visited the temple at Antioch, the Neocori stood on each side of the doorway to purify with lustral water all who entered. Valentinian, who was afterwards raised to the empire, was then captain of Julian's guard, and as such walked in front. He was then a Christian, and some of the water having been thrown upon him, he turned and struck the priest, saying, that the water rather polluted than purified ; at which the emperor was so enraged that he immediately banished him. Now whether the fingers or light brooms, &c. were used on such occa- sions we do not know ; but there were others at which the former cer- tainly were not. When the emperors dined, not only their persons and table furniture, but \hefood also was purified with lustra! water. At the feast of Daphne near Antioch, which lasted seven days, we learn that a neochorus stood by the emperor's seat, and sprinkled the dishes and meats ' as usual.' How was this water dispersed 1 Certainly not by the fingers ; nor is it likely that a wisp or a broom was employed, since it would be difficult to direct the small shower with sufficient precision on the smaller objects. We have made these remarks for the purpose of intro- ducing the figure of an ancient sprinkling ves- sel, from the third volume of Montfaucon's Antiquities. It was supposed by him to have belonged to the table or kitchen, but its spe- cific use he could not conjecture. It is evi- dently a modification of the atmospheric gar- den pot, and it appears admirably adapted for No. 73. Roman Sprinkling Vase, dispersing liquid perfumes or lustral water at the table. The ring is adapted to receive the forefinger, while the thumb could close the small orifice, and thus the con- tents might be retained or discharged at pleasure. Among other heathen customs that were long retained in the Christian church, was this practice of sprinkling. Peter Martyr exclaims against a certain class, " who not only consecrate temples themselves, but also altars and coverings to the altars ; T meane the table clothes and napkins, and also the chalices and patins, the massing garmentes, the churchyardes, the waxe candles, the frankincense, the pascal lambe, eggs, and also holie wa- ter; the boughes of their palm trees, yong springes, grass, pot-hearbes, and finally all kinds of fruites." " They doe sprinkle houses, deade bodies, churchyardes, eggs, flesh, pothearbes, and garmentes."a Of all the transactions connected with heathen 'theology, few ever made a greater noise in ancient Rome than one that is connected with this part of our subject; viz. the miracle by which Tutia the vestal saved her life. It was a religious custom among all the nations of old, to keep sa- cred foe in the temples of their deities. In some, lamps were kept burning, in others fuel kindled on the altars. In the temples of Jupiter-Am- mon, Apollo, Minerva, and some other deities were lamps constantly burning. The Israelites were to cause the lamps to " burn continually,'" besides which, " the fire shall ever be burning upon the altar : it shall a Common Places, part iv, cap. 9. Chap. 3.] Vestals. 197 never go out." Levit. vi, 13. The practice is still kept up by the Jews and also by Roman catholics. The origin of the custom is unknown ; but the Jews, Persians, Greeks, &c. are generally supposed to have derived it from the Egyptians. Upon the consecration of a temple, this ' holy fire' was not obtained from ordinary sources, i. e. from other fires, but was pro- duced by the rubbing of two sticks together; or, according to Plutarch, was drawn directly from the sun. "If it happen (he observes in his Life of Nuir.a) by any accident to be put out, as the sacred lamp is said to have been at Athens, under the tyranny of Aristion — at Delphi, when the temple was burned by the Medes — and at Rome in the Mithridatic, as also in the civil war, when not only the fire was extinguished but the altar itself overturned — it is not to be lighted again from another fire, but new fire is to be gained by drawing a pure and unpolluted flame from the beams of the sun. This is done generally with concave vessels of brass." Among the Romans a certain number of virgins were consecrated with solemn ceremonies to the Goddess VESTA. They were named vestals, and it was their peculiar duty to take charge of the sacred fire. They were greatly honored for their purity and the importance of their office. " What is there in Rome, (exclaimed Tiberius Gracchus in his address to the people) so sacred and venerable as the vestal virgins who keep the perpetual fire ?" The most valuable and sacred deposites were often placed in their hands for security. The wills of rich Romans were sometimes committed to their care ; hence we read of Augustus forcing from them that of Antony, while the latter was in Egypt. The vestals enjoyed many privileges; among others, when they went abroad, the fasces (emblems of authority) were carried by a lictor before them ; and it was death for any one to go under the litter or chair in which they were carried ; and if they met a criminal going to execution, his life was spared. The vestal daughter of Appius Claudius protected him from being arrested by the Tribunes. On the other hand, they were punished with extreme rigor if found to have broken any of their vows. To per- mit the perpetual or holy fire to go out was an unpardonable act, for it was believed to betoken some national calamity, and if one was found guilty of unchastity she was buried alive. " The criminal (says Plutarch) is carried to punishment through the forum in a litter, well covered with- out, and bound up in such a manner that her cries cannot be heard. The people silently make way for the litter and follow it with marks of ex- treme sorrow and dejection. There is no spectacle more dreadful than this, nor any day which the city spends in a more melancholy manner. When the litter comes to the place appointed the officers loose the cords, the high priest with hands lifted up towards heaven offers some private prayers just before the fatal minute; then takes out the prisoner, who is covered with a veil, and places her upon the steps which lead down into the cell, [grave;] after this he retires with the rest of the priests, and when she is gone down, the steps are taken away and the cell is covered with earth, so that the place is made level with the rest of the mount." [Life .of Numa, Langhorne's Trans.] Tutia, who was accused of incontinence, in order to avoid the horrid pen- alty, passionately called, or affected so to call, upon the goddess VESTA, to establish by a miracle her innocence. " Enable me (she cried) to take a SIEVE full of water from the Tyber, and to carry it full to thy temple." Upon this appeal her trial was stayed, and it was left to the deity she had invoked, to save her or not; for such a proof of the falsehood of her accusers could not, if it should take place, be resisted. The result 196 Sjtrinklmg Vessel from Montfaucon. [Book IT. Jewish priests commonly used a branch of hyssop, but occasionally a piece of wool, and sometimes the fingers. " The priest shall dip his finger in the oil and sprinkle it." The Greeks and Romans had not only founts or vases of holy water in their temples for the use of worshippers, whc dipped their fingers into them, as Roman catholics and mothers do at this day ; but on particular occasions, priests or officers attended to purify the people by sprinkling. Thus, when the Emperor Julian visited the temple at Antioch, the Neocori stood on each side of the doorway to purify with lustral water all who entered. Valentinian, who was afterwards raised to the empire, was then captain of Julian's guard, and as such walked in front. He was then a Christian, and some of the water having been thrown upon him, he turned and struck the priest, saying, that the water rather polluted than purified ; at which the emperor was so enraged that he immediately banished him. Now whether the fingers or light brooms, &c. were used on such occa- sions we do not know ; but there were others at which the former cer- tainly were not. When the emperors dined, not only their persons and table furniture, but the food also was purified with lustral water. At the feast of Daphne near Antioch, which lasted seven days, we learn that a neochorus stood by the emperor's seat, and sprinkled the dishes and meats ' as usual.' How was this water dispersed ? Certainly not by the fingers ; nor is it likely that a wisp or a broom was employed, since it would be difficult to direct the small shower with sufficient precision on the smaller objects. We have made these remarks for the purpose of intro- ducing the figure of an ancient sprinkling ves- sel, from the third volume of Montfaucon's Antiquities. It was supposed by him to have belonged to the table or kitchen, but its spe- cific use he could not conjecture. It is evi- dently a modification of the atmospheric gar- den pot, and it appears admirably adapted for No. 73. Roman Sprinkling Vase, dispersing liquid perfumes or lustral water at the table. The ring is adapted to receive the forefinger, while the thumb could close the small orifice, and thus the con- tents might be retained or discharged at pleasure. Among other heathen customs that were long retained in the Christian church, was this practice of sprinkling. Peter Martyr exclaims against a certain class, " who not only consecrate temples themselves, but also altars and coverings to the altars ; T meane the table clothes and napkins, and also the chalices and patins, the massing garmentes, the churchyardes, the waxe candles, the frankincense, the pascal lambe, eggs, and also holie wa- ter; the boughes of their palm trees, yong springes, grass, pot-hearbes, and finally all kinds of fruites." " They doe sprinkle houses, deade bodies, churchyardes, eggs, flesh, pothearbes, and garmentes."a Of all the transactions connected with heathen 'theology, few ever made a greater noise in ancient Rome than one that is connected with this part of our subject; viz. the miracle by which Tutia the vestal saved her life. It was a religious custom among all the nations of old, to keep sa- cred fire in the temples of their deities. In some, lamps were kept burning, in others fuel kindled on the altars. In the temples of Jupiter-Am- mon, Apollo, Minerva, and some other deities were lamps constantly burning. The Israelites were to cause the lamps to " burn continually," besides which, " the fire shall ever be burning upon the altar : it shall a Common Places, part iv, cap. 9. Chap. 3.] Vestals. 197 never go out." Levit. vi, 13. The practice is still kept up by the Jews and also by Roman catholics. The origin of the custom is unknown- but the Jews, Persians, Greeks, &c. are generally supposed to have derived it from the Egyptians. Upon the consecration of a temple, this ' holy fire' was not obtained from ordinary sources, i. e. from other fires, but was pro- duced by the rubbing of two sticks together; or, according lo Plutarch, wasjirawn directly from the sun. "If it happen (he observes in his Life of Nun:a) by any accident to be put out, as the sacred lamp is said to have been at Athens, under the tyranny of Aristion — at Delphi, when the temple was burned by the Medes — and at Rome in the Mithridatic, as also in the civil war, when not only the fire was extinguished but the altar itself overturned — it is not to be lighted again from another fire, but new fire is to be gained by drawing a pure and unpolluted flame from the beams of the sun. This is done generally with concave vessels of brass." Among the Romans a certain number of virgins were consecrated with solemn ceremonies to the Goddess VESTA. They were named vestals, and it was their peculiar duty to take charge of the sacred fire. They were greatly honored for their purity and the importance of their office. " What is there in Rome, (exclaimed Tiberius Gracchus in his address to the people) so sacred and venerable as the vestal virgins who keep the perpetual fire ]" The most valuable and sacred deposites were often placed in their hands for security. The wills of rich Romans were sometimes committed to their care ; hence we read of Augustus forcing from them that of Antony, while the latter was in Egypt. The vestals enjoyed many privileges ; among others, when they went abroad, the fasces (emblems of authority) were carried by a lictor before them ; and it was death for any one to go under the litter or chair in which they were carried ; and if they met a criminal going to execution, his life was spared. The vestal daughter of Appius Claudius protected him from being arrested by the Tribunes. On the other hand, they were punished with extreme rigor if found to have broken any of their vows. To per- mit the perpetual or holy fire to go out was an unpardonable act, for it was believed to betoken some national calamity, and if one was found guilty of unchastity she was buried alive. " The criminal (says Plutarch) is carried to punishment through the forum in a litter, well covered with- out, and bound up in such a manner that her cries cannot be heard. The people silently make way for the litter and follow it with marks of ex- treme sorrow and dejection. There is no spectacle more dreadful than this, nor any day which the city spends in a more melancholy manner. When the litter comes to the place appointed the officers loose the cords, the high priest with hands lifted up towards heaven offers some private prayers just before the fatal minute; then takes out the prisoner, who is covered with a veil, and places her upon the steps which lead down into the cell, [grave;] after this he retires with the rest of the priests, and when she is gone down, the steps are taken away and the cell is covered with earth, so that the place is made level with the rest of the mount." [Lite .of Numa, Langhorne's Trans.] Tutia, who was accused of incontinence, in order to avoid the horrid pen- alty, passionately called, or affected so to call, upon the goddess VESTA, to establish by a miracle her innocence. " Enable me (she cried) to take a SIEVE full of water from the Tyber, and to carry it full to thy temple. Upon this appeal her trial was stayed, and it was left to the deity she had invoked, to save her or not; for such a proof of the falsehood of her accusers could not, if it should take place, be resisted. The result 198 Tutia carrying Water in a Sieve. [Book II No. 74. Tutia carrying Wa- ter in a Sieve. was, she succeeded in carrying the water, and thereby not only saved her life, but greatly increased her reputation for sanctity. From the imper- fect accounts of the transaction that have reached us, it may perhaps be deemed presumptuous to decide on its real character. That it actually oc- curred there can be no doubt. It is incorporated with both the history and the arts of the Romans. It is mentioned by Valerius Maximus, by Pliny and Livy : representations of Tutia carrying the sieve were also embodied in sculptures, in statues, and engraved on gems. The annexed figure was copied from one of the latter. It is from the first volume of Montfaucon's Antiquities, Plate 28. As the feat therefore was certainly performed, it must have been either by natural or by superna- tural means. Some writers have admitted, and St. Augustine among them, that the miracle was a ge- nuine one ; but there are circumstances sufficient to show that the whole was a well conceived and neatly executed trick, on the part of Tutia and her friends; and further, that it was a much more simple one, than other deceptions to which the heathen priests some- times had recourse. It possesses considerable interest however as fur- nishing another specimen of their proficiency in scientific juggling and natural magic. To say nothing of the absurdity of admitting a divine interposition, in answer to invocations addressed to a heathen goddess — and of the improbability of Tutia being condemned while innocent; there certainly was something suspicious in her undertaking to select the test for the goddess, and especially such a one as that of carrying water in a sieve. Instead of asking for a sign by water, it would nave been more appropriate and more natural in her (if sincere) to have prayed for one by fire — by that element which was the symbol of the deity she invoked, and which it was her peculiar duty to attend at the altar and preserve pure — the element too, which, if the accusation was true, she had polluted : be- sides, a token by fire was always considered by the heathen as the strong- est evidence of divine approbation. What prompted her then to mention the test of the sieve *? Doubtless because the device by which it was to be performed was already matured; not by the assistance of Vesta, but by a very simple contrivance furnished her by the priests, from their stores of philosophical and other apparatus with which they wrought their won- ders before the people. The contrivance was, we presume, a modification of the ancient sprinkling pot, just described. The sieve she employed would therefore be a double one ; that is, its bottom and sides were hollow, the exterior bottom only being perforated, as in the an- nexed cut, which represents a double metallic vessel, the inner one being capable of holding water, and the upper edges of both united and made perfectly air tight, with the exception of one or perhaps two small openings shown on the edge in the figure. Thus when such a sieve was pressed slowly under water, the liquid would enter through the perforated bottom, drive the air before it, and fill the cavity ; and when the upper part was sunk below the surface, the upper or apparent sieve would also be filled. Then by covering the small opening Chap. 3.] Liquor Taster and Drojrping Tube. 199 with the thumb, the vessel might be raised out of the river, the water in the cavity being suspended precisely as in Nos. 69 and 70, so that Tutia might return with it to the temple, and on approaching the altar, by imperceptibly sliding her thumb to one side, the air would enter the opening thus exposed, and the contents of the cavity would descend in a shower, to the amazement of the spectators and to the confusion of her adversaries. With such an instrument she might go with that confi- dence to the trial, which she is represented to have felt, being fully con- vinced of success. While she was in the act of carrying the water, the spectators would be unable to detect the slightest imposition, or if, from the elevation at which she seems to have borne it, the bottom of the sieve was exposed, it would be more likely to confirm them in the belief of the miracle, as her movements would cause the suspended water to appear at the openings ; but it is more probable that they were kept at too great a distance by the managers of the farce, to afford them any opportunity of exercising an undue curiosity. And when the trial was over, the sieve would be&secured by those m the secret, who would have one similar in appearance ready for examination whenever required. Few devices are better adapted to demonstrate the suspension of water by the atmosphere, than those little instruments which chemists and deal- ers in ardent spirit use, to examine their various liquids. Those of the former are named ' dropping tubes,' from the small quantities they are de- signed to take up, and the latter 'liquor tasters:' both are substantially the same, for they differ merely in form and di- mensions. Some curious experiments may be made with them. For example, a series of liquids similar in appearance but differing from each other in specific gravity, and such as do not readily mix, may be placed in a glass or other vessel so as to form separate layers, the heaviest at the bottom, and the lightest reposing on the top. An expert manipulator may then by a taster (No. 76) withdraw a portion of each, and present to the examination of his audience from the same ves- sel, samples of different wines, ardent spirits, water &c. There is ;easoi to believe that the ancient professors of legerdemain Droppin, Tube. ainted witn such devices. It is possible that Divining cup, there were "the marvellous fountain, »W»™3r£j water in the island of Andros, which discharged w'"« f°y™?ut in Rome during the rest of the year-the spnng of ***&jgl£&. three to welcome the return of Augustus from the Etahan w emt urns that filled themselves with wine at the annu empty urns 200 Divining Cups. [Book II. in the city of Ellis — the glass tomb of Belus which was full of oil, and which when once emptied by Xerxes could not again be filled — the weep- ing statues, and the perpetual lamps ; — all the obvious effects of the equi- librium and pressure of fluids." The cup of Tantalus will be ound described in the Chapter on Si- phons in Book V. Divining cups may be noticed here, as there is reason to believe that water was suspended in some of them by atmospheric pressure; while in others, sounds were produced by the expulsion of air through secret cavities formed within them. Divination by water has prevailed from immemorial time, and in the eastern world, has been prac- tised in a great variety of ways. Sometimes the inquirers into futurity performed the requisite ceremonies themselves, and with ordinary instru- ments, as when a mirror or looking-glass was used ; (see page 34) at other times professional sorcerers were employed. These men, as a mat- ter of course, provided their own apparatus, and hence had every oppor- tunity in its construction of concealing within some part, the device upon which their deceptions turned. Of all the implements connected with Hydromancy. CUPS are the most interesting. They are among the earliest that history has mentioned, (Genesis, xliv, 5,) and they have longer retained a place in the conjurer's budget than any other. They were used by astrologers of Europe during the middle ages, and are not yet wholly abandoned in that part of the world. Like all devices of the old magicians, ingenuity seems to have been exhausted in their formation and in adapting them to different spe- cies of jugglery. They were of various materials ; while some were of silver like Joseph's, others were of wood, glass, stone, &c. according to the nature of the trick to be performed by them. Sometimes presages were drawn from observing the liquid through the sides of the cup; for this purpose it was made of a translucent material ; but then one side was left thick while the others were thin, so that the contents were invisible through the former, but quite plain through the latter. The indications were considered favorable when the liquid was clear and distinctly seen, and unfavorable if the inquirer could not perceive it — thus either side was presented by the conjurer as best suited his views. The same trick is still performed in some of the churches in Italy ; one side of the goblet or glass is made opaque, while the other is transparent. With other cups it was the motion or agitation of the liquid that was looked for: if it re- mained at rest, the omen was bad — if violently moved, good. This kind of divination most likely depended on legerdemain or 'sleight of hand,' in dropping unperceived some substance into the vessel that produced ef- fervescence— or by opening a secret communication with a cavity in the stem or base of the vessel, containing a liquid that had a similar effect. In Japan it is common to place a pot of water on the head ; if the liquid boil over, the presage is good, "but if it stirs not, bad luck."a Among the prodigies mentioned by Herodotus, is one of this kind : the flesh of a victim sacrificed during the Olympic games, was placed in brazen caul- drons, and " the water boiled up and overflowed without the intervention of fire," (B. i, 59.) The emerald cup, by which the priests of Mentz deluded people in the dark ages, belongs to the same class. On certain days, two or three extremely minute fishes were secretly put in, and by their motions in the water produced such an effect that the people were persuaded "the cup was alive."b a Montanus' Japan, translated by Ogilby, Lon. 1670, p. 123. b Miasou's Travels, vol. i, 93. See also Moreri's Dict.'.vol, iv. Art. Augury. Chap. 4.J Impossible to raise Liquids by Suction. 201 The divining cups of the Assyrians and Chaldeans appear, from im- perfect accounts of them extant, to have been more artificially contrived. When one was used, it was filled with water, a piece of silver or a jewel having certain characters engraved on it was thrown in ; the conjurer then muttered some words of adjuration, when the demon thus addressed, it is said, " whistled the answer from the bottom of the cup." These ves- sels were probably so contrived, that the water might compress air con- cealed in some cavity in the base, and force it through the orifice of a mi- nute reed or whistle, as in the musical bottles of Peru. As Julius Cyre- nius says such cups were also used by the Egyptians, it is possible that it was one of them by which Joseph divined, or affected through policy to divine. Divination by the cup is still practiced in Japan. It is well known that the jugglers of Asia have always been unri- valled. Even in modern times, some of their tricks are beautiful applica- tions of science, and are so neatly performed as to baffle the most saga- cious of observers. A full account of them would go far to explain all the miracles which ancient authors have mentioned, and would afford some curious information respecting the secrets of ancient temples. CHAP TE R IV. Suction : Impossible to raise liquids by that which is so called — Action of the muscles of the thorax and abdomen in sucking explained— Two kinds of suction— Why the term is continued— Sucking poison from wounds— Cupping and cupping-horns— Ingenuity of a raven— Sucking tubes original atmospheric pumps— The Sanguisuchello— Peruvian mode of taking tea, by sucking it through tubes— Reflections on it.— New application of such tubes suggested— Explanation of an ambiguous proverbial expression. AIR is expelled from such vessels as are figured in the last chapter by thrusting them into a liquid, which entering at the bottom, drives out as it rises the lighter fluid at the top. In the apparatus now to be described, it is withdrawn in a different manner. The vessels are not lowered into water, but the latter is forced up into them. The operation by which this is accomplished was formerly named suction, from an erroneous idea that it was effected by some power or faculty of the mouth, independently of any other influence. A simple experiment will convince any one that the smallest particle of liquid cannot be so raised : — fill a common flask or small bottle within a quarter of an inch of the top of the neck, and place it in a perpendicular position ; then let a person apply his mouth over the orifice, and he may suck forever without tasting the contents ; the veriest lover of ardent spirits would die in despair ere he could thus partake of his favorite liquor ; and the exhausted traveler could never moisten his parched throat, although the liquid, as in the case of Tantalus, was at his lips. As remarked in a previous chapter, the error was not exploded till Torricelli and Pascal's experiments proved that water is not raised pumps by suction, or any kind of attraction, but by pulsion from aerial pressure. Suction therefore, or that which was so called, merely removes an obstacle [air] to a liquid's ascent — it does not raise it, nor even aid in the act of raising it. In other words, it is simply that action of the mus- cles of the thorax and abdomen which enlarges the capacity of the lungs 26 J02 Cupping and Cupping Instruments. [Book II. and chest, so that air within them becomes rarefied and consequently no longer in equilibrium with that without — hence when in this state a com- munication is opened between them and a liquid, the weight of the atmos- phere resting upon the latter necessarily drives it into the mouth ; as for example, when a person drinks water from a tumbler or tea from a cup. How singular that the rationale of taking liquids into the stomach was not understood till the 17th century — that so simple an operation and one in- cessantly occurring, should have remained unexplained through all pre- vious time ! Two kinds of suction have been mentioned by some writers, but the prin- ciple of both is the same : one, the action of the chest just mentioned — the other, that of the mouth alone ; viz. by lowering the under jaw while the lips are closed, and at the same time contracting and drawing the tongue back towards the throat. There is this difference between them : the former can be performed only in the intervals of respiration, while the latter may be continuous, since breathing can be kept up through the nos- trils. One has been named supping, the other sucking. The term ' sucker/ commonly applied to the piston of atmospheric pumps, arose from its acting as a substitute for the mouth. With this explanation of the terms suction, sucking, &c. we shall occasionally use them, in accordance with general custom, for want of substitutes equally popular. Infants and the young of all mammals not only practice sucking till they quit their mother's breasts for solid food, but most of them continue the practice through life when quenching their thirst: of this man is an ex- ample, for it is by sucking that we receive liquids into the stomach, whether we plunge our lips into a running stream, receive wine from a goblet, or soup from a spoon. As the origin of artificial devices for raising liquids by atmospheric pressure may be traced to this natural operation, some other examples may be mentioned. Of these, sucking poison from wounds is one. This has been practiced from unknown an- tiquity. Job, speaks of sucking the poison of asps — At the siege of Troy, Machaon 'suck'd forth the blood' from the wounds of Menelaus; and the women among the ancient Germans were celebrated for thus healing their wounded sons and husbands. The serious consequences that often at- tended the custom, led at an early period to the introduction of tubes, by means of which the operation might be performed without danger to the operator; for scrofulous and other diseases were frequently communicated to the latter, by drawing tainted blood and humors into the mouth ; whereas, by the interposition of a tube, the offensive matter could be prevented from coming in contact with the lips. Before the use of the lancet was discovered, these cupping tubes were applied in ordinary blood-letting. Even at the present day such is the only kind of phlebotomy practiced by the oldest of existing nations ; for "the name and the use of the lancet are equally unknown among the na- tives of Hindostan. They scarify the part with the point of a knife and apply to it a copper cupping-dish with a long tube affixed to it, by means of which they suck the blood with the mouth. "a It is the same with the Chinese, Malays, and other people of the east. These generally use the same kind of apparatus as the Hindoos, but sometimes natural tubes are employed, as a piece of bamboo.b The horns of animals, as those of oxen and goats were also much used ; these on account of their coni- cal form being better adapted for the purpose than cylindrical tubes » Shoberl's Hiudostan, v, 42. b Chinese Repos. iv, 44. See also Le Comte's China, and Marsden's Sumatra. Chap. 4.] The Sanguisuckello. 203 Park found the negroes of Africa cupping with rams' horns ; and the Shetlanders continue to use the same instrument, having derived it from their Scandinavian ancestors. Cupping was practiced by Hippocrates, and cupping-instruments were the emblems of Greek and Roman phy- sicians. The application of a reed or other natural tube, through which to suck liquids that cannot otherwise be reached, has always been known. The device is one which in every age, boys as well as men acquire a know- ledge of intuitively, or as it were by instinct; nor does it indicate a greater degree of ingenuity than numerous contrivances of the lower animals— that of the raven for example, which Pliny has mentioned in the tenth book of his Natural History. This bird, during a severe drought, seeing a vase near a sepulchre, flew to it to drink, but the small quantity of water it contained was too low to be reached. In this dilemma, stimula- ted by want and thrown upon its own resources for invention, it soon de- vised an effectual mode of accomplishing its object — it picked up small pebbles and dropped them into the vessel till the water rose to the brim — an instance of sagacity fully equal to the application of a tube under similar circumstances by man. As sucking tubes are atmospheric pumps in embryo, a notice of some applications of them will form an appropriate introduction to the latter. They constituted part of the experimental apparatus of the old Greek Pie- nists and Vacuists ; and were used by the Egyptians as siphons. They were, and still are, employed in Peru for drinking hot liquids, and were anciently used by the laity in partaking of wine in the Eucharist. "Beatus Rhenanus upon Tertullian in the booke De Corona Militis, re- porteth that among the riches and treasures of the church of Mense, were certain silver pypes by the which profane men, whom they call the laietie, sucked out of the challice in the holy supper."a The device, if not of more distant origin, was perhaps designed in the dark ages, as a check to the rude communicants, who would naturally be inclined to partake too freely of the cup. But since the laity were excluded by the Council of Constance, from sharing the wine, the use of such tubes has been retained. At the celebration of high mass at St. Denis, the deacon and sub-deacon suck wine out of the chalice by a chalumeau or tube of gold. [Diet, de Tre- voux. Art. Chalumeau.] ' The sanguisuckcllo or blood-sucker,' says La Motraye, is a golden tube by which the Pope sucks up the blood [wine] at high mass; the chalice and tube being held by a deacon. The instrument, he remarks, corresponds with "the ancient pugillaris, or tube mentioned by Car- dinal Bona in his treatise of things belonging to the liturgy, and of the leavened and unleavened bread."b No. 78 is a figure of the sanguisuchello. It has three pipes, but the middle or longest one is that by which the liquid is raised. The whole is of gold, highly ornamented, and enriched with a large emerald. One reason assigned for its use, is, that it is more seemly to suck the blood [wmej through a vein, than to sup it. , The Peruvians make a tea or decoction of the 'herb of Paraguay, » Peter Martyr's Com. Places. Lon. 1583. Part 4, p. 37. bLa Motraye's Trav. i. 29, 31, 427, and Blainville's Trav. ii, 332. 204 Peruvian Sticking Tubes. [Book II No. 79. Peruvian female taking tea with a sucking-tube. which is common to all classes. "Instead of drinking the tincture or infusion apart, as we drink tea, they put the herb into a cup or bowl made of a calabash or gourd, tipp'd with silver, which they call mate; they add sugar and pour on it the hot water, which they drink immediately without giving it time to infuse, because it turns as black as ink. To avoid drink- ing the herb which swims at the top, they make use of a silver pipe, at the end whereof is a bowl full of little holes; so that the liquor suck'd in at the other end is clear from the herb."a Frezier has given an engraving of a lady thus employed, from which the annexed cut is copied. In Frezier's time it was the custom for every one at a party to suck out of the same tube — like Indians in coun- cil, each taking a whiff from the same calumet. With the exception of con- fining a company to the use of one in- strument, we should think this mode of ' taking tea' deserving the considera- tion of the wealthy, since it possesses several advantages over the Chinese plan which we have adopted. In the first place, it is not only a more ingenious and scientific mode of raising the liquid, but also more graceful than the gross mechanical one of lifting the vessel with it. It is more economical as regards the exertion required ; for in ordinary cases a per- son expends an amount of force in carrying a cup of tea backwards and forwards, so many times to his mouth, as would suffice to raise a bucket of water from a moderately deep well. In the use of these tubes there is no chance of verifying the old proverb — ' many a slip between the cup and the lip' — And then there is no danger of breakage, since the vessel need not be removed from the table. How often has a valuable ' tea-set' been broken, and the heart of the fair owner almost with it, by some awkward visitor dropping a cup and saucer on their way to his mouth, or on their return to the table ! Lastly, the introduction of these tubes, would leave the same room as at present for display in tea-table para- phernalia. There is another application of them which some convivialists may thank us for suggesting. It has been regretted by ancient and modern epicures that nature has given them necks much, shorter than those of some other animals; these philosophers supposing that the pleasures of eating and drinking are proportioned to the lengtJi of the channel through which food passes to the stomach. Now although a sucking tube will not alter the natural dimensions of a person's neck, it may be so used as to prolong the sensation of deglutition in the shortest one; for by contracting the orifice, each drop of liquid imbibed through it may be brought in contact with the organs of taste, and be detained in its passage until every particle of pleasure is extracted from it; — being the reverse of what takes place, when gentlemen swallow their wine in gulps. The most fas- tidious disciple of Epicurus could not object to this use of them, since nothing would touch his liquid but the tube; and as every person would a Frezier's Voyage to the South Seas, p. 252. Chap. 5.] Various forms of Pumps. 205 provide his own, no one would ever think of borrowing his neighbor's, any more than he would ask for the loan of his tooth-pick.a We are not sure that this plan of attenuating agreeable liquids, did not give rise to that mode of drinking adopted by the luxurious Greeks and Romans, to which we have before alluded. Their drinking vessels were generally horns, or were formed in imitation of them. At the small end of each a very minute opening was made, through which a stream of drops, as it were, descended into the mouth. Paintings found in Pom- peii, and other ancient monuments, represent individuafs in the act of thus using them — while others, whose appetite for the beverage, or whose thirst was too keen to relish so slow a mode of allaying it, are seen drinking, not out of "the little end," but out of the large end "of the horn." We have mentioned this circumstance because it appears to af- ford a solution of an old, but somewhat ambiguous saying. CHAPTER V. On bellows pumps: Great variety in the forms and materials of machines to raise water — Simple bel lows pump — Ancient German pump — French pump — Gosset's frictionless pump: Subsequently re-in- vented— Martin's pump — Robison's bag pump — Disadvantages of bellows pumps — Natural pumps in men, quadrupeds, insects, bird's, &c. — Reflections on them. Ancient vases figured in this chapter. IN the course of time a new feature was given to sucking tubes, by which they were converted into pumps: this was an apparatus for with- drawing the air in place of the mouth and lungs. In what age it was first devised, and by what people, are alike unknown. The circumstance that originally led to it, was probably the extension of the length of sucking tubes, until the strength of the lungs was no longer sufficient to draw water through them. In this way the bellows pump, the oldest of all pumps, we presume took its rise. It should be borne in mind that an atmospheric pump is merely a con- trivance placed at the upper end of a pipe to remove the pressure of the atmosphere there, while it is left free to act on the liquid 'in which the lower end is immersed ; and farther, that it is immaterial what the sub- stance of the machine is, or what figure it is made to assume. Some per- sons perhaps may suppose that pumps seldom vary, and then but slightly, from the ordinary one in our streets, (the ancient wooden one) but no idea could be more erroneous; for few, if any, machines have undergone a greater number of metamorphoses. The body or working part, which is named the 'barrel' and sometimes the 'chamber,' so far from being always cylindrical, has been made square, triangular, and elliptical; — it is not even always straight, for it has been bent into a portion of a circle, the centre of which formed the fulcrum of the lever and rod, both of which in this case being made of one piece : its materials have not been confined to v/ood and the metals, for pumps have been made of glass, stoneware, stone, leather, canvas, and caoutchouc. Some have been constructed like *In Shakespeare's time, "every guest carried his own knife, which he occasionally whetted on a stone that nun* behind the door. One of these whetstones may be in Parkinson's Museum. They were strangers at that period to the use [Ritsons's Notes on Shakespeare's Timon of Athens. Act i, Scene A.\ 206 Bellows Pump. [Book II a bag, resembling the old powder-puff or the modern accordion; others in the form of the domestic and blacksmith's bellows — some in the figure of a drum, and others as a portion of one — as a simple horizontal tube suspended at the centre on a perpendicular one, and whirled round like the arms of a potter's wheel — then again as a perpendicular tube without slacker or piston, and moved like a gentleman's walking cane, from which maeed its name is derived. (See Canne Hydr antique in Book IV.) They have also been made of two simple tubes, one moved over the other like those of a telescope — even a kettle or cauldron has been used as a pump, and the vapor of its boiling water substituted for the sucker to expel the air it contained, after which the pressure of the at- mosphere forced water into it from below. In fine, any device by which air can be removed from the interior of a vessel, is, or may be used as a pump to raise water. Nor have the 'suckers' or 'pistons' been subject to less changes than other parts of pumps. They have been made solid and hollow — in the form of cones, cylinders, pyramids, sectors, and segments of circles: — in the shape of cog-wheels, and of the arms and vanes of wind-mills, with motions analogous to such as these; and sometimes they are ma.de in the shape of a gentleman's hat and of similar mate- rials; while the only motion imparted to them, is the odd one of alternately pushing them inside out and outside in. If a collapsed bladder or leather bag, be secured at its orifice to the upper end of a perpendicular tube whose lower end is placed in a vessel of water, (No. 80) then, if by some contrivance the bag can be distended, as shown by the dotted lines, the small quantity of air contained in it and the pipe would become rarefied, and consequently unable to balance the pressure without — hence the liquid would be forced up into the bag, until the air within became again condensed as before — that is, the blad- der would be filled with water, with the exception of a quantity equal to the space previously occupied by the air within it and the pipe. To convert this simple apparatus into a pump, two valves or clacks only are wanting. One, opening up- wards and placed in any part of the pipe or at either of its extremities. This will allow water to pass up through it, but none to descend. The other placed over an aperture made on the top of the bag, and opening outwards — through this the contents of the vessel when collapsed can be discharged; and when distended it will close, and thereby prevent the en- trance of the external air. The instrument thus ar- anged becomes a bellows pump, (No. 81,) a machine, which from the obvious application of the bellows to raise and spout water as well as air, has been re- invented by machinists in almost every age. The figure scarcely requires illustration. It repre sents a pipe attached to the under board of a circular or lantern bellows, the orifice of which is covered by a clack — the upper No. 80. No. 81. Bellows Pump. Chap. 5.] Old German Bellows Pump. 207 board has also an opening in its centre which is closed by a valve or clack, and also furnished with a rod and handle. The under board sometimes forms the bottom of a box, in one side of which a spout is inserted, as shown by the dotted lines. The earliest representation of a bellows pump which we have met with in books, is among the curious cuts attached to the first German translation of Vegetius, from which No. 82 is copied. (Erffurt 151 l)a It will suffice to show the application of this kind of pump to raise water at that time. There was of course a valve covering the interior orifice of the nozzle and opening outwards, to prevent the air from entering when the upper board was raised. This valve is not shown because the art of representing the interior of machines by section, was not then un- derstood, or not practiced. The lower board is fastened to the ground by a post and key, and a weight is placed on the upper one to assist in ex- pelling the water. No. 82. German Atmospheric Bellows Pump. A. D. 1511. One hundred years ago, two bellows fixed in a box and worked by a double lever, like^the old fire or garden engine, was devised by M. Da Puy, Master of Requests to the king of France. The machine was re- commended to raise water from the holds of ships, drain lands, &c. It appears that the widow of M. Du Puy, expected to reap great advantages from it in England; but Dr. Desaguliers, in 1744, published a description of it taken from the French account, and among other remarks he ob- server)— ""About fourteen years ago, two men here applied for a patent for this very engine, proposing thereby to drain mines ;" * * * " all the difference was, that their bellows were fixed upon a little waggon; and they had a short sucking pipe under; and the force pipe went up from the two bellows. I opposed the taking out of this patent, because I thought it would be of great hurt to the undertakers, to lay out near eighty pounds for what would never bring them eighty pence ; unless they made a bubble of it, and drew unwary people into a scheme to subscribe money." (Ex. Philos. ii, 501.) Bellows pumps were previously used in France. They are spoken of as common in the old Diet, de Trevoux. »I am indebted to John Allan, Esq. for a copy of this scarce old work. It is the same io which Prof. Beckman refers in his article on the diving bell. Unfortunately the outs are left without explanation. 208 Gosset and Deuille's Pump. [Book II. No. 83. Gosset and Deuille's Pump. A neat and perhaps the best modification of these machines was de vised about the year 1732, in Paris, by Messrs. Gosset and Deuille. It was described by Belidor in 1739, and by Desaguliers in 1744, as "a piston without friction." It consists of a circular piece of leather pressed into the form of a deep dish, or of a low crowned hat with a wide rim. This rim is secured by bolts and screws between two flanches of a pump cy- linder, forming an air tight joint — the part corresponding to the body of the hat fits loosely into the cylinder; and the crown is strengthed by a circular plate of metal of the same size and riveted to it. In the centre of this plate an opening is made and also through the leather for the passage of the water, and covered by a valve opening upwards like the ordinary sucker of a pump. The forked end of the pump-rod is secured to this plate. (See figure.) When the rod is raised, the bottom of the dish or hat is above the flanch, and when down it is pushed inside out as shown in the cut. Thus, by alternately ele- vating and depressing it, the water is raised as in the common pump. This piston is described in Vol. VI, of Machines approved by the French Academy for 1732, p. 85, as the invention of M. Boulogne. The great advantage of this pump is in the sucker or piston not rub- bing against or even touching the sides of the cylinder, hence there is no friction to overcome from that source, and the leather is consequently more durable ; but the length of stroke is much less than in common pumps, it seldom exceeding six or eight inches, lest the leather should be overstrained in pressing it deeper. Large pumps of this description were worked in the mines of Brittany incessantly during three or four months without requiring any repair. India-rubber, and canvas saturated or coated with it, have been successfully used in place of leather. Some modifications of the sucker have also been introduced. This pump was re-invented in England some years ago, and made con- siderable noise under a new name. See London Mechan. Magazine, and Register of Arts, 1826-29 ; also the Journal of the Franklin Institute for 1831, vol. vii, 193. In 1766, Mr. Benjamin Martin, the well known au- thor of ' Philosophia Britannica' and other scientific works, proposed a good double pump of this kind for the British navy — a figure and description of it may be seen in Vol. XX. of Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine. Dr. Robison, in the second volume of his Mechanical Philosophy, pro- posed what has been named an improvement on the last pump. His de- vice is however little else than the old bellows pump. A figure of it and his description are annexed. A, B, (No. 84) represents a wooden trunk or cylinder of metal, having a a spout at the upper part, and the lower end closed by a plate, the opening in which is covered by a clack valve E, as in No. 83. To this plate is se- cured the open bottom of a long cylindrical bag, the upper end being fixed to the round board F. " This bag may be made of leather or of double can- vas, a fold of thin leather or of sheepskin being placed between the two 5.] Bag Pump. 209 No. 84. Bag Pump. folds. The upper end of the bag should be firmly tied with a cord in a groove turned out of the rim of the board at F. Into this board is fixed the fork of the piston rod, and the bag is kept distended by a number of wooden hoops or rings of wire, fixed to it at a few inches distance from one another, and kept at the same distance by three or four cords binding them together, and stretching from the top to the bottom of the bag. Now let this trunk be immersed in the water : it is evident that if the bag be stretched from the compressed form which its own weight will give it by drawing up the piston rod, its capacity will be enlarged, the valve F will be shut by its own weight, the air in the bag will be rarefied, and the atmosphere will press the water into the bag. When the rod is thrust down again, the water will come out at the valve F, and fill part of the trunk. A repetition of the operation will have a similar effect; the trunk will be filled, and the water will at last be discharged at the spout." The operation is precisely the same as in No. 81. "Here is a pump without friction and perfectly tight; for the leather between the folds of canvas renders the bag impervious both to air and water. We know from experiment that a bag of six inches diameter made of sail cloth No. 3, with a sheepskin between, will bear a column of fifteen feet of water, and stand six hours work per day for a month, without failure; and that the pump is considerably superior in effect to a common pump of the same dimensions. We must only observe that the length of the bag must be three times the intended length of the stroke, so that when the piston rod is in its highest position, the angles or ridges of the bag may be pretty acute. If the bag be more stretched than this, the force which must be exerted by the laborer becomes much greater than the weight of the column of water which he is raising." But after all that can be said in favor of bellows pumps, they have their disadvantages. A prominent one is this: when the leather or other ma- terial of which they are formed is worn out, a practical workman, who is not to be obtained in every place, is required to renew it. Unlike re- placing the leather on an ordinary ' sucker', which a farmer or a sailor on ship-board can easily accomplish, the operation requires practice to per- form it efficiently, and the expense both of time and materials is mucli greater than that of similar repairs to the common pump. For these and other reasons, bellows pumps have never secured a permanent place among staple machines for raising water, and the old cylindrical pump still retains the preeminence, notwithstanding the almost innumerable pro- jects that have been brought forward to supersede it. The preceding machines resemble in some degree the apparatus for drinking which the Creator has furnished to us and to such quadrupeds as do not lap. When an ox or a horse plunges his mouth into a stream, he dilates his chest and the atmosphere forces the liquid up into his sto- mach precisely as up the pipe of a pump. It is indeed in imitation of these natural pumps that water is raised in artificial ones. The thorax is the pump; the muscular energy of the animal, the power that works it; the throat is the pipe, the lower orifice of which is the mouth, and which he must necessarily insert into the liquid he thus pumps into his stomach ; 27 210 Natural Pumps. [Book II. and whenever the depth of water is insufficient to cover the opening be- tween his lips, the animal instinctively draws closer those portions of them above it, and contracts the orifice below, just as we do under similar cir- cumstances, and which we constantly practice in sipping tea or coffee from a cup, or any other beverage of which we wish to partake in small quan- tities. The capacious chest of the tall camel, or of the still taller came- leopard or giraffe, whose head sometimes moves twenty feet from the ground, is a large bellows pump which raises water through the long channel or pipe in his neck. The elephant by a similar pneumatic appa- ratus, elevates the liquid through that flexible 'suction pipe,' his proboscis ; and those nimble engineers, the common house-flies, raise it through their minikin trunks in like manner. We may here remark, that among the gigantic animals which in remote ages roamed over this planet, and which quenched their thirst as the ox does, there could have been none which stood so high as to have their stomachs thirty feet above the water they thus raised into them. And on the table lands of Mexico, and the still higher regions of Asia, Africa, and South America, animals of this kind, if such there were, must have had their stomachs placed still lower. The mandibles of some insects are hollow,, and are used as sucking pumps. They serve also sometimes as sheaths to poniards, with which nature has furnished them, as weapons of offence and defence. Those of the lion-ant are pierced, and "no doubt act as suckers." This little animal constructs a minute funnel-shaped excavation in dry sand, and co- vering its body at the bottom lays in wait, like an assassin, for its prey : "no sooner does an industrious ant, laden perhaps wij;h its provision, ap- proach the edge of the slope, than the finely poised sand gives way, and the entrapped victim rolling to the bottom, is instantly seized and sucked to a shadow by the lurking tyrant, who, soon after by a jerk of his head tosses out the dead body." Weasels and other animals suck the blood of their prey. The tortoise drinks by suction, for which purpose he plunges his head deep into the fluid, so as even to cover his eyes. There are several species of birds denominated 'suctorial' on account of their obtaining food by means of atmospheric pressure, which they bring into action by apparatus analogous to the pump. The grallatores or waders, "suck up their food" out of water. It is impossible to contemplate the structure and habits of animals, without being surprised at the extent to which this principle of raising li- quids has been adopted by the Almighty in the formation of insects, rep- tiles, fishes, birds, amphibia and land animals ; and also at its adaptation to their various forms, natures, and pursuits. Had we the necessary knowledge of their physiology, we would desire no greater pleasure, no other employment than to examine and describe these natural pneumatic machines, and the diversified modes of their operation. For other natural pumps, see remarks at the end of Chapter 2, on bel- lows forcing pumps, in the next Book. The vessels or vases figured in this chapter are ancient. Those in which the tubes are inserted in illustrations Nos. 80 and 81, are of glass; the one under the pump spout in No. 83, is a bronze bucket; all from Pompeii. The latter is referred to at page 67. The globular vessel in No. 84, is a figure of a brazen cauldron, also Roman, from Misson. See page 19 of this volume. Chap. 6.1 The Common Atmospheric Pump. 212 CHAPTER VI. The atmospheric pump supposed by some persons to be of modern origin— Injustice towards the an cicnts— Their knowledge of hydrodynamics— Absurdity of an alledged proof of their ignorance of a simple principle of hydrostatics— Common cylindrical pump— Its antiquity— Anciently known un der the name of a siphon— The antlia of the Greeks— U[sed as a ship pump by the Romans— Bilge pump — Portable pumps— Wooden pumps always used in ships— Description of some in the U. S. Navy —Ingenuity of Bailors— Singular mode of making wooden pumps, from Dampier— Old draining pump— Pumps in public and private wells— IP. mines— Pump from Agricola, with figures of various boxes- Double pump formerly used in the mines of Germany, from Fludd's works— The wooden pump not im proved by the moderns — Its use confined chiefly to civilized states. SOME persons are unwilling to admit that the atmospheric pump was known to the ancients, and yet they are unable to prove its origin in later times or by more recent people. The passages in ancient authors in which it is supposed to be mentioned or alluded to, are deemed inconclusive, because the terms by which it is designated were also applied to othei devices. To confine the knowledge of the ancients to such departments of the arts as are either expressly mentioned or referred to in Greek and Roman authors, and to those, specimens of which have been preserved to our times, is neither liberal nor just. Let us suppose Europe and the United States, in the course of future time, thrown back into barbarism, and all records perished, save a few fragments of the works of our dramatists, poets and historians ; — and that after the lapse of some 1500 or 2500 years these should be discovered — and also some relics of our archi- tecture, pottery, and works in the metals : Now we should think the writers of those days illiberal in the extreme, who should conclude that we were ignorant of nearly all branches of science and of the arts ; and of every machine which was not particularly mentioned or illustrated in the former — or of which specimens were not found among the latter. And yet something like this, has been the treatment which the ancients have received at our hands. It cannot however be denied, that remains of their works still extant, exhibit a degree of skill in architecture, sculpture, metallurgy, pottery, en- graving, &c. which excels that of modern artists.* And as regards their knowledge of hydrodynamics — let it be remembered, that we are in- debted to them for canals, aqueducts, fountains, jets d'eau, syringes, for- cing pumps, siphons, valves, air vessels, cocks, pipes of stone, earthen- ware, wood, of lead and copper : yet notwithstanding all these, and their numerous machines for raising and transferring water, and the immense quantities of tubes for conveying it, which are found scattered over all Asia as well as Italyb and Greece, it has been gravely asserted, that they were ignorant of one of the elementary and most obvious principles of »It was remarked by the late Mr. Wedgewood, who was doubtless the most skilful manufacturer of porcelain in our own times, that the famous Barbanni Vase att evidence of an art of pottery among the ancients of which we are as yet igno, even of the rudiments. Edin. Encyc. vol. ii, 203. .. b The vast quantities of leaden pipes found at Pompeii induced the Weapon verument to sell them as old metal. Pompeii, vol. i, 104. 212 The Antlia, [Book II hydrostatics : viz. that by which water in open tubes finds its own level • a fact, of which it may safely be asserted, it was impossible for them not to have known — a fact with which the Indians of Peru and Mexico were familiar; and one expressly mentioned by Pliny : " water, (he observes) always ascends of itself at the delivery to the height of the head from whence it gave receipt — if it be fetched a long way, the work [pipe] will rise and fall many times, but the level [of the water] is still maintained. " Besides the testimony of Pliny, fountains and jets d'eau are incontro- vertible proofs that a knowledge of the fact is of stupendous antiquity ; they having been used in the east from immemorial ages. But the proof adduced to establish their ignorance in this particular, is as singular as the position it is brought forward to sustain, since it equally establishes our own ignorance of the same principle ! It has been said, had the ancients known that water finds its level at both extremities of a crooked tube, they would have conveyed it through pipes to supply their cities, instead of erecting those expensive aqueducts which were among the wonders of the world, and remains of which still strike the be- holder with admiration: — in reply to this it need only be observed, that should any remains of the Croton aqueduct, now constructing to supply this city (New-York) with water, be found two thousand years hence, they may, by the same argument, be adduced as proofs that the present engineers of the United States were ignorant that water poured into an inverted siphon would stand at the same level in both its branches. The fact is, the ancients did sometimes convey water over eminences in siphons of an easy curvature.8 And aqueducts were in some few instan- ces carried through valleys by inverted siphons. In the reign of Claudius* an aqueduct was formed to convey water from Fourvieres to the highest part of the city of Lyons. As valleys of great depth were in the line of its course, works of an enormous expense would have been required, which might have prevented the execution of the project ; consequently, instead of an elevated canal, leaden pipes were substituted, forming an inverted siphon.b It is uncertain when or by whom the common atmospheric pump was invented. It is supposed to have been known to the old Egyptians, and to have been used in the ship in which Danaus and his companions sailed to Greece.c As the antlia of the Greeks, it could not have originated with Ctesibius, to whom it has sometimes been attributed, since it or some other machine or device is mentioned under that name, by Aristophanes and ciher writers who flourished ages before him.d There are other in- dications that it was previously known, for either it or something very like it is mentioned under the name of a siphon. This term it is known was a generic one, being applied to hollow vessels, as funnels, cullenders, pipes; and generally to instruments that either raised or dispersed water, as syringes, catheters, fire-engines, sprinkling-pots, &c.e That the ma- chine to which we refer raised water by 'suction,' is apparent from an- cient allusions to it. According to Bockler, "the Platonic philosophers asserted that the soul should partake of the joys of heaven as through a aiphon;" and by it Theophrastus explained the ascent of marrow in bones; and Columella the rise of sap in trees. In these instances, it is obvious that neither the ordinary siphon nor the syringe could be intended, but the atmospheric pump ; a machine that Agricola described as a aFoshroke's Encyc. Antiq. i, 41. bHydraulia, Lon. 1835, p. 254. cSee Edin. Encyc. Art. Chronology, vol. vi, 263. d Robinson's Antiquities of Greece, cap.4 On Military Affairs. e See Ainsworth's Diet. Chap. 6.J An Atmospheric Pump. 213 siphon ; and one to which the remark of Switzer only can apply— -"the si- nhon was undoubtedly the chief instrument known in the first a^es of the world, (besides the draw-well) for the raisii.g of water."* Nor is there any thing in the account given by Vitruvius of 'the Ma- chine of Ctesibius,' which indicates that the atmospheric pump was not in previous use. His description is obviously that of a forcing pump (and appears to have been so understood by all his translators,) one whose working parts were placed not above but in the water it was employed to elevate ; whose piston was solid, and which by means of pipes forced the water above itself; that raised the water "very high;" attributes which do not belong to the common pump. It is true he has not men- tioned the latter, perhaps because it was not then employed as now in civil engineering, and therefore not within the scope of his design in wri- ting his work. The manner in which Pliny speaks of it, shows that it was an old device in his time, since it was one with which even country- people or farmers, (the last to adopt new and foreign inventions) were fa- miliar. In his 19th Book, 'On Gardens/ cap. 4, he observes: when a stream of water is not at hand, the plants should be watered from tanks or wells, the water of which may be drawn up by plain poles, hooks and buckets, by swapes or cranes, [windlass] "or by pumps and such like." And that these were no other than the old wooden pump of our streets and such as our farmers use, is obvious from a passage in his 16th Book, cap. 42, where speaking of the qualities and uses of different kinds of wood, he remarks, "pines, pitch trees and allars, are very good to make PUMPS and conduit pipes to convey water; and for these purposes their wood is bored hollow." Although sufficient time may be supposed to have elapsed from the age of Ctesibius to that of Pliny for the introduction of the atmospheric pump to the countrymen of the latter, (supposing it to have been invented by the former) we can hardly believe, if it were not of more remote origin, that it could even in that time have found its way into Roman farm-yards and gardens ; much less that it should have superseded, (as it appears to have done) every other device on board of their ships. New and foreign inventions were neither circulated so easily nor adopted so readily in ancient as in modern days; and even now a long time would elapse before inventions of this kind would find their way through the world and longer before they became generally adopted. But had the pumps of which Pliny speaks been of recent introduction, he would cer- tainly have said so ; and had they been the ' water forcers' of Ctesibius, to which he alludes in his 7th Book, he could scarcely have avoided re- cording the fact. That the antlia was the atmospheric pump would also appear from its employment in ships. There is no reason to suppose that more than three kinds of marine pumps were ever in use — the chain pump, the screw, and the common pump. In the chapter on the former we have shown that it was not known or used by the Greeks and Romans. The screw was first adopted as a ship pump by Archimedes, (see page 133) and- hence n would seem that the last only could be intended by more ancient as well as subsequent authors when speaking of the antlia: that it was so, anti- quarians generally admit. " The well, (says Fosbroke in his article on the vessels of the classical ancients) was emptied by the winding screw of Archimedes now in use ; but in other ships by the antlia or pump.' It is of the latter that Pollux speaks, and to it Tacitus refers when mentioning a Hydrostatics, 294. 214 The Bilge Pump. [Book II the Jvreck of some vessels in which Germanicus and his legions sailed down the Amisia into the German ocean: "the billows broke over them with such violence, that all the pumps at work could not discharge the water." [B. ii, 23. Murphy's Translation.] Martial, the Roman poet, speaks of the antlia as a machine ' to draw up water ;' according to Ainsworth, 'a pump.' Kircher figures and describes the old wooden pump as the antlia. [Mundus Subterraneus, torn, ii, 196.] The Romans appear to have employed it exclusively or nearly so in their navy; and even in that of the Greeks it is not probable that the screw was extensively adopted, on account of its not being so well adap- ted for ships as the other. Of this the former people seem to have been convinced ; they preferred the pump and all modern nations have con firmed their judgment. Had they used the screw to any extent it would have been continued in European vessels after the fall of the Em- pire, when most of their arts and customs were naturally and necessarily continued — their ship pumps as well as their ships. But as the atmos- pheric pump only has so come down, we infer that the machine now com- monly used to discharge water from the holds of our vessels is identical, or nearly so, with that employed by Roman sailors of old. The oldest modification of the ship pump appears to have been that formerly known as the ' bilge' or ' burr' pump ; and it was the simplest, for it had but one distinct valve, viz. 'the lower box,' as the one which retains the water in a pump is sometimes named. This pump kept its place in ships till the last century, and may yet occasionally be met with in those of Europe. It was often worked without a lever, but its pecu- liarity consisted principally in the construction of the piston or sucker.8 It differed from the ordinary pump "in that it hath a staff, six, seven or eight foot long, with a bur of wood whereunto the leather is nailed, and this serves instead of a box ; so two men standing over the pump, thrust down this staff, to the middle whereof is fastened a rope for six, eight or ten to hale by, and so they pull it up and down." This account published nearly 200 years ago, might be sufficiently descriptive then, when the pump was in common use, but few persons could now realize from it a correct idea of the substitute for the ordinary sucker. It is however ra- ther more explanatory than the accounts given in later works. In some it has been described as " a long staff with a burr at the end to pump up the bilge water." Here the burr only is mentioned, not the leather, and the idea imparted is that of a solid piston, such as are used in forcing pumps. The sucker of the bilge pump consists of a hollow cone or truncated cone of strong leather, the base being equal in diameter to that of the pump chamber or cylinder. It is inverted and nailed to the lower end of the rod. The lower edge of the leather resting against the burr. When thrust down it collapses and permits the water to pass between it and the sides of the chamber, and when its motion is reversed, the weight of the liquid column above it, presses it out again. To prevent the cone from sagging, three strips of leather are se ;ved to its upper part at equal dis- tances from each other, and their other ends nailed to the rod. (See No. 85.) The action of this sucker is something like moving a parasol up and down in water ; the sides close as the rod descends and open when it rises. It is the simplest modification of the sucker known and probably the most ancient. It is figured by Agricola, (vide C in No. 88) but aThis part of an atmospheric pump is sometimes named the sucker, the bucket, the upper box, the piston; — we shall generally use the first when speaking of the atmo spheric pump ; and the last when referring to forcing pumps. Chap. 6. Portable Pumps. is not mentioned by Belidor, Switzer, Desaguliers or Hachette- sen noticed by more recent writer., witn tge exception of ™' 215 n Rochelle Westchester county, in this state, (New-York) and were formed by a pump maker there, that they "always had it " if is Z however umversally known, for in 183! a patent waJ taken out for & There is another application of the* burr pump in ships that is probably due to old navigators. We allude to the use of those portable instruments which, says an old author, "are made of reed, cane, or laten, [brass] that sea- men put down into their casks to pump up the drink, for they use no spick- ets." No. 85 represents one, with a separate view of the sucker, from an illustrated edition of Virgil, of the 16th century. They appear to be of con- siderable antiquity and were perhaps used for the same purpose by the an- cient sailors of Tyre and Carthage, Greece and Rome. No. 86 is a figure of the common liquor pump, derived from the former. It is from L' 'Art du Dislillateur, in ' Descriptions des Arts et Metiers,' folio, Paris, 1761. The se- parate section of the lower part shows the 'boxes' to have been similar to those now often used. Another sucker is figured with a spherical valve ; a boy's marble, or a small ball of metal being placed loosely over the orifice, instead of a clack. It was at that time made both of tin plate and of copper as at present. One of these pumps is mentioned by Conrad Gesner, as constituting part of a portable Italian distillery, in the former part of the 16th century, at which period it seems to have been common. See a reference to it, page 218. Ship pumps seem to have been made of bared wooden logs since the days of the elder Pliny, and probably were so by both Greeks and Ro- mans long before his time. We learn that they were made by ship- wrights, i. e. by a certain class of them.c At the present day, every person knows that wooden pumps are oftener to be found in ships than any other : this has always been the case. It is to them only that refe- rence is made in the relations of early voyages. The vessels of Colum- bus,*1 Vasco de Gama and Magalhanes, were furnished with them ; indeed no other kind appears to have been used by old European navigators. From the importance of efficient machines to raise water from ships, it may reasonably be supposed that if any nation had possession of a supe- rior one, it would soon have been adopted by the rest ; but there is not the slightest intimation of any difference between them. The pump in Spanish, Portuguese, English and French vessels, is spoken of as com- mon; as much so as the anchor or rudder: thus — when the Vitoria one No. 86. Liquor Pump. » Epitome of Philosophy, Lon. 1823, p. 199. b Journal of the Franklin Insti stute, vol. ix, 235. c Lardner's Arts of the Greeks and Romans, vol. i, 3oO. ving's Columbus, vol. ii, 127. ^16 Pumps in American Skips. [Book II. of Magalhanes' fleet, put into St. Jago on her return in 1522, a boat was sent ashore for provisions, and " some negroes to assist in working the pumps, many of the ship's company being sick, and the leaks having in- creased."* In the account of Frobisher's third voyage in search of a north-west passage in 1578, the Anne Francis having run on a sunken rock, "they had above two thousand strokes together at the pumpe be fore they could make their shippe free of the water, so sore she was brused."b In the voyage of some English vessels to the north the fol- lowing year, one was nearly lost; "by mischance the shippe was bilged on the grapnell of the Pavos, [another vessel] whereby the company [owners] had sustained great losses, if the chiefest part of their goods had not been layde into the Pavos ; for notwithstanding their pumping with three pumpes, heaving out water with buckets and all the best shifts they could make, the shippe was halfe full of water ere the leake could be found and stopt."c In November 1599, two large Portuguese ships arrived at Terceira in distress, having been separated in a storm, during which they " were forced to use all their pumpes" to keep afloat.d Ta- vernier sailed in 1652, from the Persian Gulf to Maslipatan in a large ship belonging to the king of Golconda; — a storm arose and became so violent that the water ** rowl'd in from stem to stern, and the mischief was that our pumpes were nought." Fortunately several bales of leather were on board, of which they made bags or buckets, "which being let down from the masts with pulleys through certain great holes which were cut in the deck, drew up a vast quantity of water."* Wooden pumps, with and without metallic cylinders and boxes, are still common in European and American ships of war. The latter with few exceptions have no other. A description of those on board the North Ca- rolina, a ship of the line, may possibly interest some readers. This ves- sel has six. They are large trees bored out and lined with lead. They reach from the surface of the main gun deck to the well, a distance of twenty-three feet. A brass cylinder, 2 feet 9 inches long and 9 inches bore, in which the piston works, is let into the upper part of each; The piston rods (of iron) pass through the centre of a guide piece, se- cured over every pump, and are thus kept from deviating from a perpen- dicular position. They are connected to the levers by slings as in the common brass lifting pump and some others. The levers are double, and shaped like those of fire-engines, staves of wood being slipped through the rings whenever the pumps are worked. Each lever works two pumps; and the length of stroke, or the distance through which the pistons move in the cylinders, is 14 inches. The pistons or upper boxes are of brass with butterfly valves; the band of leather round each is secured by screws, (in place of nails in the wooden box.) ' Necessity is the mother of invention :' the truth of this proverb is often illustrated by seamen, especially as regards the raising of water. Nu- merous are the instances in which they have relieved themselves from situations so alarming as to paralyze the inventive faculties of most other men ; either by devices to work the ordinary pumps when their strength was exhausted, or in producing substitutes for them when worn out. A singular example of the latter is mentioned by Dampier, which may be of service to sailors. It is attributed to a people who are not remarkable for their contributions to the useful arts, and on that account a Burney's Voyages, vol. i, 112. b Hackluyt's Collection of Voyages, &c. Lon. 1598, black letter, vol. iii, 88. clbid, vol. i, 421. dAstley's Collection of Voyages Lon. 1746, vol. i, 227. e Travels in India, Lon. 1678, p. 90. Chap. 6.] Various modes of working Skip Pumps. 217 it would hardly be just to omit it. In the course of Dampier's voyage round the world, while sailing (in 1687) along the west side of Minda- nao, one of the Philippine Islands, he concluded to send the carpenters ashore to cut down some trees for a bowsprit and topmast. "Arid our pumps being faulty and not serviceable, they did cut a tree to make a pump. They first squared it, then sawed it in the middle, and" then hol- lowed each side exactly. The two hollow sides were made big enough to contain a pump-box in the midst of them both, when they were joined together ; and it required their utmost skill to close them exactly to the making a tight cylinder for the pump-box, being unaccustomed to such work. We learned this way of pump-making from the Spaniards, who make their pumps that they use in their ships in the South Seas after this manner ; and I am confident that there are no better hand-pumps in the world than they have." (Dampier's Voyages, vol. i, 443.) In the ab- sence of tools to bore logs the device is an excellent one, and in some particulars such a pump would be superior to the common one. It is not so readily made as one of planks, but it is more durable. Various ingenious modes of working their pumps have been devised by seamen and others ; the power of the men has been applied as in the act of rowing — this plan by far the most efficient is adopted in the French navy. A rope crossed over a pulley and continued in opposite directions on a ship's deck, so that any number of men may be employed at the same time, has been extensively used in pumps with double suckers, as shown at No. 92. Ropes passed through blocks and connected to the brake of the common pump have also been worked in a similar way. Captain Leslie, in a voyage from Stockholm to this country, adopted the following plan, which in a heavy gale, may be very efficient : ' He fixed a spar aloft, one end of which was ten or twelve feet above the top of his pumps, and the other projected over the stern : to each end he fixed a block or pulley. He then fastened a rope to the pump rods, and after passing it through both pulleys along the spar, dropped it into the sea astern. To the rope he fastened a cask of 110 gallons measurement and containing about 60 gallons of water. This cask answered as a balance weight, and every motion of the ship from the roll of the sea made the .machinery svork. When the stern descended, or when a sea or any agi tation of the water raised the cask, the pump rods descended ; and the contrary motion of the ship raised the rods, when the water flowed out The ship was cleared out in four hours, and the exhausted crew were of course greatly relieved.' A ship pump made of such boards or plank, as are commonly found on board of large vessels, was devised by Mr. Perkins, for which he received a gold medal from the London Society of Arts. It is figured and described in che 38th volume of the Society's Transactions. The facility with which wooden pumps are made and repaired, the cheapness of their material, the little amount of friction from pistons working in them, and their general durability, have always rendered them more popular than others. Like many of our ordinary machines, they seem to have been silently borne down the stream of past ages to the 15th and 16th centuries, when, by means of the printing press, they first emerge into notice in modern times. The earliest representation of one we have met with in print is in the G-erman translation of Vegetius, on the same page with No. 82, the bellows pump : No. 87, on next page, is a copy. It is square, made of plank and apparently designed to drain a pond or marsh. The piston or sucker, which is separately represented, is cylir drical and was perhaps intended to show a variation in the construction 28 218 Pumps in the Wtk Century. [Book IL No. 87. A. D. 1511. of that instrument. It has no valve or clack, but appears trf* be a modii cation of the one used in the old bilge punrjp, which was sometimes compared to a 'gunner's sponge.' There are numerous proofs in old au- thors, that pumps were common in wells in the 15th century, since they are mentioned in the earty part of the following one, as things in ordinary. In 1546, they were used to some extent in those of London. In the 'Practice of the New and old Phi- sicke,' by Conrad Gesner, (who died in 1565) translated by George Baker, 'one of the Queene's maiesties chiefe chirurgians in ordinary/ and dedicated to Elizabeth, (Lon. black letter, 1599,) is a description of a Florentine distilling apparatus, to which a portable pump was attached ; the latter is described as "an instrument which is so formed that the water by sucking is forced to rise up and run forth, as the like practice is often used in pits of water or welles" Folio 215. The cele- brated mathematician, necromancer, and alchymist, Dr. John Dee, who was frequently consulted by queen Elizabeth, had a pump in the well be- longing to his house. In Beroald's commentary on the 44th proposition of Besson, (the chain of pots) he observes that it " opere sans intermission en tirant 1'eau de tout puits facilement sans pompes"* Sarpi, who first dis- covered the valves of the veins, compared them to those of a pump, 'opening to let the blood pass, but shutting to prevent its return.' But pumps had not wholly, in the 16th century, superseded the old mode of raising water with buckets in European cities. At that time a great portion of the wells were open — of this, numberless intimations might be found. Thus in Italy, the poet Aurelli, who was made gover- nor of a city by Leo X. was murdered by the inhabitants on account of his tyranny, and his body with that of his mule thrown into a well. In Lon- don, it was not till the latter part of the following century that the chain and pulley disappeared. This is evident from the following enactment of the common council of that city the year after the great fire. (1667) "And for the effectual supplying the engines and squirts with water, pumps are to be placed in all wells :"b — a proof that many were open and the water raised in buckets. Pumps are also described in old works on husbandry, gardening, &e. from which it appears that they were often used to raise water for irriga- tion. In the ' Systema Agricultures, bein^ the mystery of Husbandry discovered and laid open,' Lon. 1675, directions are given respecting va- rious modes of making and working them; and it is particularly di- rected that the rods be made of such a length as to permit the suckers or * upper boxes' to descend at every stroke below the surface of the water in the well; this it is observed, 'saves much trouble.' The same remark accompanies an account of windmills for watering land [pumps driven by them] in' the old ' Dictionarum Rusticum.' In the mines of Hungary pumps were early introduced, but at what period is uncertain. It is not improbable that those described by Agri- a Theatre des Instrumens, 1579. b Maitland's History of London, p. 297. Chap. 6.J Pumps in German Mines. cola, were similar to such as were used in some of the same mines by the ancients, and have always formed part of the machinery for discharging water from them since the fall of the Roman empire. All that are figured in the De Re Metallica, are extremely simple, and with one excep- tion are atmospheric or sucking pumps. They are all of bored logs. Some are sin- gle purnps, and are worked by men with levers, cranks, and also by a kind of pendu- lum. Others are double, triple, &c., and worked by water wheels. Of the last some are arranged in rows, and the piston rods raised by cams as in a stamping mill; the weight of the rods carrying them down. Others are placed in tiers one above ano- ther; the lowest one raises the water from the bottom of the shaft or well, and dis- charges it into a reservoir at its upper end: into this reservoir the next pump is placed, which raises it into a higher one, and so on to the top. A pump of this kind from Ag • ricola, has been often republished. It was copied by Bockler and others. A figure of it is inserted in Gregory's Mechanics, Ja- mieson's Dictionary, &c. We have selected No. 88, as a specimen of a single pump, and of upper and lower boxes. A, A, represent two of the latter ; the upper part of one is tapered t fit it into the lower end of the pump log as is yet sometimes don* D, B, an upper box, of a kind occasionally used at No. 88. Pump and Pistons from Agricola. No. 89. Double Pump in German mines. A. D. 1618. the apertures, and is kept in its place by the rod, which passes through its centre and admits it to rise and fall. C, the conical sucker referred to, p. 214. The annexed figure of a double pump is from Fludd's works. It appears to have been sketched by him while m Germany, from one in actual use. It is represented as worked by a water wheel, that, by means of cog wheel transmitted motion to the hori- zontal shaft; the cams on whic* alternately depressed one em of the levers to which the pump rods were attached, and thus raised the latter. They de- scended by their own weight, as will appear from an inspec- tion of the figure. application of cranks on the horizontal shaft, 220 Tie Pump confined chiefly to civilized States. [Book II. vers. The lower ends of the pumps are inserted in baskets which act as strainers. A double series of pumps, (one over the other) as employed in a mine at Markirch in Germany, is also figured by Fludd. It is inte- resting on account of the mode of communicating motion to the rods. A crank on the axle of a water wheel imparts motion to a walking beam, as in a steam engine; (in the latter the operation is reversed) and the pump rods are attached to both ends of the beam.a The idea may probably occur to the general reader, that the mechani cal talent and enterprise of the preceding and present century, which have produced so many original machines and scarcely left an ancient device unimproved, must have imparted to the old atmospheric pump new features, and made it capable of increased results. It is true that few de- vices have occupied a greater share of attention, and on none have more ef- forts to improve them been bestowed; but how far these have been suc- cessful may be inferred from the fact — that notwithstanding the endless variety of forms into which its working parts have been changed, and the great number of alledged improvements in suckers, pistons, valves, &c. the machine as made by the ancients, still generally prevails ; so that were some of their pump makers to reappear, and visit their fellow crafts- men throughout the world, they would find little difficulty in resuming their occupation. The pump, although a simple instrument, is confined chiefly to civilized states, while the extent to which it is employed, indicates pretty correctly the degree of refinement attained by the people who possess it. Whether it was known to the Egyptians under the Pharaohs or not, may be a question; but when Egypt under the Greeks realized a partial revival of her former glory, the forcing pump we know made its appearance there; and under the second Ptolemy, when that country was a school for the rest of the world, its most valuable modifications were known. In suc- ceeding ages, the atmospheric pump has been a regular attendant on the revival of learning and of the arts. Wherever these have made the most progress, there the pump is mostly used. In Germany, France, Holland, Great Britain, and the United States, it is most extensively employed. In Spain, Portugal, Mexico and South America, but partially so. In Turkey, Egypt, Greece, &c. still less ; while in Asia and Africa, generally, it is un- known.b Egypt, even under the auspices of Mohammed Ali, is not yet pre- pare to receive it again. Its history in any country is that of the people. Take Russia for an example : of the devices for raising water there, we are informed the inhabitants use the swape, a rope passing over a pulley, (Nos. 13 and 14) a drum on which a rope is wound, (No. 23) horizontal and vertical wheels, and lastly pumps; these last it is said, were formerly very rare, but are now become common.* Just so of the people, they were formerly very rude and ignorant, but are now becoming enlightened. «De Naturae Simia seu Technica macrocosmi historia, pp. 453, 455. b As regards a knowledge of the pump in China, see remarks on Chinese bellows, in the next Book. «LyeH's Character of the Russians, and a detailed history of Moscow. Lon. 1823, p. 63. Chap. 7.] Metallic Pumps. 221 CHAPTER VII. Metallic pumps— Of more extended application than those of wood- Description of one— Devices t« prevent water in them from freezing— Wells being closed, no obstacle in raising water from them— Ap. plication of the atmospheric pump to draw water from great distances as well as depth— Singular cir- cumstance attending the trial of a Spanish pump in Seville— Excitement produced by it— Water raised to great elevations by atmospheric pressure when mixed with air— Deceptions practised on this prin- ciple—Device to raise water fifty feet by atmospheric pressure— Modifications of the pump innumerable — Pumps with two pistons — French marine pump — Curved pump — Muschenbroeck's pump — Centrifugal pump— West's pump— Jorge's improvement— Original centrifugal pump— Ancient buckets figured in this chapter. THAT the public hydraulic machinery of the Romans was of the most durable materials sufficiently appears from Vitruvius. The chain of pots described by him was, contrary to the practice in Asia and Egypt, wholly of metal — the chain was of iron and the buckets of brass. The pumps of Ctesibius that were employed in raising water to supply some of the public fountains, he informs us, were also of brass and the pipes of cop- per or lead. Some of the oldest pumps extant in Europe are formed al- together of the latter. Leaden pumps were very common in the 16th century. They are mentioned by old physicians among the causes of cer- tain diseases in families that drank water out of them. The pump of the celebrated alchymist, Dee, alluded to in the last chapter, was a leaden one ; and which he expected to be able to transmute into gold, by means of the elixir or the philosopher's stone, which he spent his life and fortune in seeking. In the vicinity of some English lead mines such pumps have for many centuries been in use. The Italian pump that led to the disco- very of atmospheric pressure was also a metallic one. The introduction of metals in the construction of pumps greatly ex- tended their application and usefulness, for they were then no longer re- quired to be placed directly over the liquids they raised. Those of wood were necessarily placed within the wells out of which they pumped water; but when the working cylinder and pipes were of copper or lead, the former might be in the interior of a building, while the reservoir or well from whence it drew water, was at a distance outside ; the pipes forming an air-tight communication between them under the surface of the ground. The following figure, (No. 90) represents a common metallic sucking pump ; the cylinder of cast-iron or copper, and the pipes of lead. It will serve to explain the operation of such machines in detail, and to show the extent of their application. When this pump is first used, water is poured into the cylinder to moisten the leather round the sucker, and the pieces which form the clacks or valves ; it also prevents air from pas- sing down between the sucker and the sides of the cylinder when the former is raised. Now the atmosphere rests equally on both orifices ot the pipe, the open one in the well, and the other covered by a valve at the bottom of the cylinder : in other words, it presses equally on the water in the cylinder and in the well which covers both ;a but whe "Not absolutely so, or in a strict philosophical sense, but the difference is so slight in an altitude of 25 or 28 feet, (the ordinary limits) as to be inappreciable n point of view. Common Pumps. [Book IL 90. Common Metallic Pump. the depression of the handle or lever, the sucker is raised, this equality is destroyed, for the atmospheric column over the cylinder, and consequently over the valve O is lifted up, and sustained by the sucker alone; it therefore no longer presses on the upper orifice, while its action on the lower one remains undiminished. Then as the external air cannot en- ter the pipe to restore the equili- brium except through its orifice im- mersed in the well ; in its efforts to do so, (if the expression is allowa- ble) it necessarily drives the water before it on every ascent of the sucker, until the air previously con- tained in the pipe is expelled, and both pipe and cylinder become filled with water. The subsequent operation is ob- vious. When the sucker descends, the clack on its upper surface is rai- sed by the resistance of the water through which it passes ; and when at the bottom of the cylinder, this clack closes by its own weight : so that when the sucker is again eleva- ted, besides overcoming the resis- tance of the atmosphere, it carries up all the water above it, and which it discharges at the spout — at the same time the .atmosphere resting undisturbed on the water in the well, pushes up a fresh portion into the vacuity formed in the cylinder, and the valve O prevents its return. Tne horizontal distance between the cylinder or working part of the pump and the well is, in theory unlimited, but in practice it seldom exceeds one or two hundred feet. In all cases where long pipes are used, their bore should be enlarged in proportion to their length, or the velocity with which the sucker is raised, should be diminished ; and for this reason — time is required to overcome the inertia and friction of long columns of water in pipes ; hence a sucker should never be raised faster than the pipe can furnish water to fill the vacuity formed by its ascent. In pumps whose pipes have too small a bore, it frequently happens that the sucker is forcibly driven back when quickly raised, because the water had not time to rush through the pipe and fill the vacuity in the cylinder as rapidly as it was formed. The bore of wooden pumps being equal throughout, the water is not pinched or wire-drawn while passing through them, as in most of those of metal. This is one reason why they generally work easier than the latter. It is immaterial in what part of the pipe the valve O is : it is usually placed at the upper end for the con- venience of getting to it when requiring repairs. When it fits close to its seat, the water always remains suspended in the pipe, (unless the latter should be defective) as mercury is sustained in a barometer tube. In cold climates it is a matter of some importance to prevent water in pumps from freezing. Metallic pumps are, from the superior conducting property of their material, more subject to this evil than those of wood. Of various devices a few may be mentioned. The old mode of enclosing Chap. 7.] Limits of the perpendicular length of Suction Pipes. 223 the pump in a case containing tanners' bark, charcoal, the dung of hor- ses, &c. is continued. Others are to prevent the valve O from sitting close to its seat, or to open it, by pressing the sucker upon a pin attached to it, so that the contents of the cylinder and pipe may descend into the well j hence every time the pump is used a fresh portion is required to 'prime it.' A more common method is to connect the lower part of the cylinder with the suction pipe by a stop cock and short tube, as at C. By opening the cock the water in the pump descends through it into the pipe. But the usual practice in this country, is to make the cylinder of such a length that two or three feet of it may be below the surface of the ground, and out of the reach of the frost ; about a foot above the valve O or lower box, a plain cock is inserted : in winter this cock is left partially open, and the water above escapes slowly through it into the ground ; while that below, into which the sucker is made to extend at its lowest position, serves instead of fresh 'priming/ A similar device is attached to the lateral pipes that convey the water of the Schuylkill into the houses of Philadelphia. Some persons can scarcely conceive how the atmosphere can have ac- cess to a well, while the latter is covered with slabs of stone or timber, and a thick bed of clay or mould over all. They forget that it is the ra- rity of air, the extreme minuteness of its particles, which enables it to circulate through the finest soils, as freely as people pass through the va- rious chambers and passages of their dwellings. Were the sides of a well coated, and its mouth covered with the best hydraulic cement — no sooner could the sucker or piston of a pump produce a partial vacuum within it, than the air would stream through the cement as water through a colander or shower bath. And if the top and sides were rendered per- fectly air-tight, it would then enter the bottom arid ascend through the water without any perceptible obstruction. If it were possible to make a well impervious to air, no water could be raised from it by one of these pumps: no movement of the sucker could then bring it up. We might examine the apparatus with solicitude — remove its defects with care — consult the learned with the Florentines, or get enraged like the Spanish pump maker of Seville ; — still, the water, like Glendower's spirits of the deep, would in spite of all our efforts refuse to rise. When the atmospheric pump is required to raise water from a perpen- dicular depth, not exceeding 26 or 28 feet, (i. e. in those parts of the earth where the mercury in the barometer generally stands at 30 inches) the length of the cylinder need not exceed that which is required for the stroke of the sucker. In ALL cases, the perpendicular distance between the sucker, when at the highest point of its stroke and the level of the water, should never exceed the same number of feet as the tube of a ba- rometer, at the place where the pump is to be used, contains inches of mer- cury. But in the temperate zones where pumps are chiefly used, the pres- sure of the air varies sometimes to the extent of two inches of mercury, or between two and three feet of water ; hence the distance should be some- thing less. And as the level of water in wells is subject to changes, it is the laudable practice of pump makers to construct the cylinder and rod of the sucker, of such a length, that the latter may always work within 26 or 28 feet of the water. By keeping the above rule in view, water may be raised by these pumps from wells of all depths ; for after it has once entered the linder, it is raised thence by the sucker independently of the atmosphere, and to any height to which the cylinder is extended. This seems to have been well understood by old engineers. The remark of those who made 224 Singular incident in trying a Pump at Seville. [Book 11. the Florentine pump is a proof; and others might be adduced from much older authorities. Plate 48, in Besson's Theatre, represents an atmos- pheric pump raising1 water from a river to the top of a high tower. The cylinder is square, formed of plank and bound with iron clamps. It is shown as nearly four times the length of the suction pipe, which is round. When pump rods are required of great length, they should be made of pine. This wood does not warp, and as it is rather lighter than water, its weight has not to be overcome (like iron rods) when raising the sucker. A circumstance to which we have slightly alluded, was announced in the public papers of Europe, in the year 1766, whfch roused the attention of philosophers ; for it seemed to threaten a renewal of the disputes about a vacuum, and the ascent of water in pumps and siphons, &c. A tinman of Seville, in Spain, undertook to raise water from a well 60 feet deep, by the common pump. Instead of making the sucker play within 30 feet of the water, he made the rod so short, that it did not reach within 50 feet of it. As a necessary consequence, he could not raise any. Being greatly disappointed, he descended the well to examine the pipe, while a person above was employed in working the pump ; and at last in a fit of despair, at his want of success, he dashed the hatchet or hammer in his hand, violently against the pipe. By this act a small opening was made in the pipe about ten feet above the water — when, what must have been his surprise ! the water instantly ascended and was discharged at the spout ! The fact being published, it was by some adduced as a proof that the pressure of the atmosphere could sustain a perpendicular column of water much longer than 32 or 34 feet, and consequently that the experiments of Torricelli and Pascal were inconclusive. M. Lecat, a surgeon at Rouen in Normandy, repeated the experiment with a pump in his garden : he bored a small hole in the suction pipe ten feet above the water, to which he adapted a cock. When it was open, the water could be discharged at the height of 55 feet, instead of 30 when it was shut. As mi^ht be supposed, these experiments when investigated, instead of overthrowing the received doctrine of atmospheric pressure, more fully confirmed it. It was ascertained that the air on entering the pipe became mixed with the water; and which therefore, instead of being car- ried up in an unbroken column, was raised in disjointed portions, or in the form of thick rain. This mixture being much lighter than water alone, a longer column of it could be supported by the atmosphere : and by pro- portioning the quantity of air admitted, a column of the compound fluid may be elevated one or two hundred feet by the atmospheric pump; but there is no advantage in raising water in this manner by the pump, and we believe it is seldom or never practiced. In a paper, on the duty per- formed by the Cornwall Steam Engines in raising water, in the Journal of the Franklin Institute for May, 1837, it is stated that a little air is sometimes admitted in the pump pipes, which it is alledged, "made the pump work more lively, in consequence of the spring it gave to the co- lumn of water, and caused less strain to the machinery." In the same paper Mr. Perkins states that forty years before, an attempt was made to impose upon him in this country, a pump which raised water by atmo- spheric pressure 100 feet : but he detected "a small pin hole" in the pipe through which the air was admitted. The same deception it seems gave rise to the humorous poetical satire, ' Terrible Tractor ation.' The ingenious author states in his preface, that he was employed in 1801, as agent for a company in Vermont, and of which he was a member, to proceed to London, and secure a patent for Chap. 7.] Modifications of Atmospheric Pumps. 225 • a new invented hydraulic machine/ "I was urged to hurry my depar- ture in consequence of a report in circulation, that certain persons by stealth had made themselves masters of the invention, and were deter mined to anticipate us in our object of securing a patent in London In consequence of this report, thn experiments made with this machine were performed in a hasty manner. By it, water was raised through leaky tin pipes in a hasty experiment, 42 feet from the surface of the fountain to the bottom of the cylinders, in which the pistons were worked. I embarked from New- York the 5th of May, and arrived in London after a tedious passage the 4th of July. I waited on Mr. King, then ambassador from the United States, to whom I had letters, and was by him favored with a letter to Mr. Nicholson, an eminent philosopher and chemist. With this gentleman I had several interviews on the subject of my hydraulic ma- chine, and from him received an opinion in writing unfavorable to its merits. I likewise made a number of experiments in London, with a different result from what I had seen in Vermont. In this desperate si- tuation of the adventure, I received a letter from one of the Vermont Company, informing me there was a deception in the patent — that from experiments made subsequent to my departure, it appeared that no water could be raised by Langdon's invention higher than by the common pump, unless by a perforation in the pipe, which made what the inventor called an air hole, and which by him had been kept a secret. Mr. Nicholson in- formed me that a similar deception had been practised on the Academi- cians of Paris, but that the trick was discovered by the hissing noise made by the air rushing into the aperture." From the disappointment Mr. Fes- senden turned to his pen, and wrote ' The modern Philosopher or Terrible Tractoration' See preface to 2nd American ed. Phil. 1806. It is possible however to raise water by a short cylinder, fifty or even a hundred feet high, but for all practical purposes the device is useless. The first thing of the kind that we know of, was accomplished nearly forty years ago by a boy. He fixed a small pump (the cylinder was 12 inches in length) in the garret of a high dwelling, and a tub of water in the cellar, the perpendicular distance being nearly 50 feet. About half way up the stairs, he placed a close vessel, (a three gallon tin boiler) from the bottom of which a small leaden tube was continued to the pump cylinder; and another tube being soldered to the top, descended into the tub of water. A third tube was soldered to the top of the vessel, and terminated near the pump, having a cock soldered to the end. This cock being shut and the pump worked, the air in the pipes and the vessel was withdrawn, and the latter consequently filled with water by the atmo- sphere ; he then opened the cock which admitted the atmosphere to act on the surface of the water in the vessel, and by again working the pump the contents of the vessel were raised and discharged in the garret. By a se- ries of close vessels placed at distances not exceeding 30 feet above each othe-r, water may be raised in this manner to any elevation. It is impossible to notice here a moiety of the projects for improving the atmospheric pump and the various parts of which it is composed ; their name is legion, and this volume is far too limited to comprise an ac- count of them all. Those that we are about to describe are of modern date, but it does not therefore follow that they were unknown to the an- cients. Men in every age, when striving to accomplish a specific object, naturally fall into similar trains of thought, and hit upon the same or nearly the same devices. Could the ancient history of this machine be procured, it would we have no doubt prove, that (like the instruments invented by a celebrated French surgeon, fac-similes of which of exquisite finish, were 29 Pump with two Pistons. [Book II. subsequently founo^in Pompeii) not a few of its diversified modifications were anticipated by Greek and Roman machinists. Why then were they not preserved or continued in use] For the same reason that the old pump is still generally preferred : and were it not for the art of printing it is probable that not one of the modern improvements of this machine would be known 2000 years hence, any more than those devised by the ancients are now known to us. Those persons who are familiar with it, well know that a large majority of its supposed improvers, have returned from long and laborious mental pilgrimages in its behalf, laden, like old devotees, with little else than stores of worthless relics. Of innumerable variations in its construc- tion, the greater part consists of different modes of communicating motion to the rod, by wheels, cranks, racks and pinions, cams, N\\ \ plain and jointed levers, pendulums, balance [© af"MP^ poles, vibrating platforms, &c. Of these it would be useless to speak. Others consist in two or more suckers in the same cylinder; in altering the form of the latter ; and some in imparting motion to the cylinder, and dispen- sing with the sucker. We shall notice some of these here, and others in the next Book. The introduction of two suckers or pistons into one cylinder has long been a favorite project. Dr. Conyers in 1673 proposed a pump of this kind. He made it of plank, square and tapered^ (in the form of an inver- ted and truncated pyramid,) 8^- feet long, 20 inches square at the upper end, and 8 at the bottom where the valve or lower box was placed. He fixed tivo suckers on the same rod, one at its lower end and the other so as to play half way down the trunk. This pump he said, raised "at least twice as much water as the ordinary one of the same size." If such was the fact, it was by the expenditure of twice as much force. Had the bore of the trunk, where the upper sucker played, been uniform throughout, and the lower sucker laid aside, and with it the force ex- pended in moving it, the result would clearly have equalled that of both. Phil. Trans. Abridg. Vol. i, 545. About the year 1780, Mr. Taylor of South- ampton, Eng. introduced two suckers or pis- tor.s into one cylinder, each united to a separate rod, that one might as- cend as the other descended, and thus discharge double the quantity of water: No. 91 is a figure of it. The rod of the lower sucker slides through the centre of the upper one ; and also through its valve, which is a spherical or hemispherical piece of brass, placed loosely over its seat and to which the rod acts as a guide. The upper parts of the rods ter- minate in racks, between which a cog wheel is placed, having an alternate movement; imparted to it, by a lever attached to its axis, as in the common air pump. Anothei mode of working this pump, is by means of a drum fixed to No. 91. Double Piston Pump. Chap. 7.] Working Skip Pumps by Ropes. 227 one end of the shaft of the cog wheel; over this a rope is passed and crossed below., to which any number of men, on each side, may apply their strength. Both parties pull the rope towards them by turns, and thereby impart the requisite movement to the cog wheel, and consequently to the pump rods and suckers, as shown in No. 92. Mr. Adams, in his Lectures on Natural Philosophy, published in 1794, observed that these kind of pumps had been "in general use in the royal navy for five or six years." Vol. iii, 392. No. 92. Working Ship Pumps by Ropes. In 1813, the London Society of Arts awarded a medal and twenty guineas to Mr. P. Hedderwick, for various modes of imparting motion to two pistons in the same cylinder, by a series of levers, instead of cog wheels and racks. Trans, vol. xxxii, 98. Atmospheric pumps with two pistons are used in the French marine, and are arranged so as to be worked by the men as in the act of rowing. Neither racks nor pinions are used in communicating motion to the rods. The upper ends of these are continued outside the cylinders and bent a little outwards, and then connected by a bolt to each end of a short vibrating beam which is moved by the men. The rods do not descend in the centre of the cylinder, as in the preceding figure, but are attached to one side of the suckers. The lower rod passes through an opening in the upper sucker, which is closed by a collar of leather. Hachette's Traite Elementaire des Machines. Paris, 1819, p. 153. Pumps with double pistons are not of modern date : there is one figured in Besson's Theatre des Instrumens. The alledged superiority of these pumps is more specious than real. It is true the inertia of the water in ascending the pipes has not to be overcome at every stroke, as in the common pump, since its motion through them is continuous ; nor is its direction changed, as when two separate cylinders are used, being then diverted into them from the pipes at angles more or less acute. These are real advantages; but if we mistake not, they are the only ones, unless taking up less room on ship board be an- other. But from the cylinders being twice the ordinary length, these machines are really double pumps ; having not only two suckers and two rods, but also two cylinders, and requiring twice the power to work them. The principal difference between them and the usual double pump, is that the cylinders are united together on the same axis, while in the latter, they are placed parallel to each other. In point of economy, we think pumps with two distinct cylinders are preferable ; they are less complex, and of course less liable to derangement : a longer stroke can be ob- tained in them, and, what is of more importance, when one is disordered, the other can be continued in use. On these considerations we believe . double piston pumps were abandoned in the British navy. A singular modification of the common pump was devised in England in 1819, for which the Society of Arts awarded a premium of twenty guineas. The chamber was curved, and the centre of the circle, of which 228 MuschenbroecJc* s Pump. [Book II. it formed a part, served as a fulcrum on which the rod and handle (both of one piece) moved. The rod was curved so as to move in the centre of the chamber. No. 93. Curved Pump. The objects supposed to have been attained by this arrangement, were " greater simplicity of workmanship," and " greater steadiness and preci- sion of action" (of the sucker.) The device is ingenious, but can never be generally adopted. The spring of the rod with the wear of the bolt on which it turns, must soon render the play of the sucker and wear of the chamber unequal : the difficulty and expense of making the latter curvi- linear, and of repairing it when bruised or otherwise injured, are fatal objections. The pipe must be separated from the chamber to get at the lower box or valve ; and the application of the pump is limited to depths within 30 feet. We have noticed it, lest the same idea occurring to some of our me- chanics, should lead them to a useless expenditure of time and money. In the same year a patent was issued in Eng- land for making the cylinder in the form of a ring, or nearly so, the centre of which was the fulcrum on which the pis- ton turned, and an alternating motion was imparted to the latter. Repertory of Arts, vol. xxxv. 1819. An interesting modification of the at- mospheric pump was described by Mus- chenbroeck in his Natural Philosophy. Instead of a piston or sucker working inside of the cylinder, the latter itself is moved, being made to slide over the pipe somewhat in the manner of telescope tubes. No. 94 represents this pump. The upper end of the suction pipe, being made of copper or brass, and its exte- rior smooth and straight, is passed tt. ough the bottom of a small cistern. Its orifice is closed by a valve opjning upwards. A short cylinder whose diameter exceeds that of the suction pipe is slipped over the latter; and to its lower end a stuffing box is adapted to prevent air or water from passing between them. Its upper No. 94. Muschenbroeck's Pump. Chap. 7.] Centrifugal Pump. 229 end is covered by a valve also opening upward. The pump rod is at- tached to the same end by a fork, as represented in the figure. By mo- ving the cylinder up and down, the air within it and the pipe is soon ex- pelled, and its place occupied by a portion of the water in which the lower end of the suction pipe is immersed. When the cylinder is then raised the atmosphere forces up water into it, and when it is depressed, the water being prevented by the valve on the end of the pipe from de- scending into the well, escapes out of that on the top of the cylinder, pre- cisely as in the bellows pump. (p. 206.) By keeping water in the cistern, air is effectually prevented from entering between the pipes at the stuffing box, even if it be not perfectly tight. A cup or dish formed on the upper end of the cylinder to contain a little water over the valve, would be an advantage in this description of pumps, for any defects in it by which air is admitted would be fatal, as a vacuum could not then be formed within the cylinder, and of course no water raised by it. Our common pumps would be almost useless if water was not kept over the valves; it is that which renders them air tight, and consequently efficient. In the early part of the 18th century, a new method of exciting the pres- sure of the atmosphere for the purpose of raising water was adopted. Its discoverer burst the fetters with which long established modes of accom- plishing this object had embarrassed common minds. He left the old track entirely, and the result of his researches was a philosophical machine that bears no resemblance to those by which it was preceded. Most people are practically acquainted with the principle of the Centri- fugal pump, viz. that by which a body revolving round a centre tends to recede from it, and with a force proportioned to its velocity : thus mud is thrown from the rims of carriage wheels, when they move rapidly over wet roads ; a stone in a sling darts off the moment it is released ; a bucket of water may be whirled like a stone in a sling and the contents retained even when the bottom is upwards. A sailor on ship board, or a house- maid, dries a wet mop by whirling it till the force communicated to the watery particles overcomes their adhesion to the woolen fibres. Boys sometimes stick pellets of tough clay to the end of a switch or flexible rod, and then drawing it quickly through the air, the force imparted to the balls sends them to their destination. If a tube be substituted for the rod, and the end that is held in the hand clo- sed, by a similar movement, balls dropped or water poured into it, would be thrown forward in like manner; and if by some arrange- ment the movement of the tube was made continuous, projected streams of either balls or water might be rendered constant: the centrifugal gun is a contrivance to accomplish the one — the centrifugal pump the «r x-m other. This pump generally consists ot tubes, united in the form of a cross No. 95. Centrifugal Pump. or letter T, placed perpendicularly in the water to be raised. (JNo. JO.) The lower end is supported on a pivot ; perforations are made to adn the water, and just above them a valve to retain it when the pump is not in motion. The ends of the transverse part are bent downwards to dis- 230 Pumps. [Book II. charge the water into a circular trough, over which they turn. To charge it, the orifices may be closed by loosely inserting a cork into each, and then filling the pump through an opening at the top which is then closed by a screw cap. A rapid rotary motion is imparted to the machine by a pulley fixed on the axis and driven by a band, from a drum, &c. The centrifugal force thus communicated to the water in the arms or transverse tube, throws it out; and the atmo- sphere pushes up the perpendicular one fresh portions to supply the place of those ejected. These pumps are sometimes made with a single arm like the letter L in- verted; at others quite a number radiate from the up- right one. It has also been made of a series of tubes arranged round a vertical shaft in the form of an inver- ted cone. A valuable improvement was submitted by M. Jorge to the French Academy in 1816. It consists in imparting motion to the arms only, thus saving the power consumed in moving the upright tube, and by which the latter can be inclined as circumstances or lo- cations may require. A combination of the centrifugal pump with Parent's or Barker's mill, was proposed by Dr. West, which in some locations may be adopted with advantage. It is sim- ply a vertical shaft round which two tubes are wound : (No. 96) the upper one is the pump; the lower one the mill. The area of the lower one should be to that of the upper in the inverse ratio of the perpendicular height, and as much more as is necessary to overcome the fric- tion. The cup or basin into which the stream (part of which is to be raised) is directed, may be attached to the shaft and turn with it, or the latter may pass through it. Tilloch's Phil. Mag. vol. xi. The first centrifugal pump appears to have been invented by M. Le Demour, who sent a description of it to the French Academy in 1732. (Machines approuve. Tom. vi, p. 9.) It was merely a straight tube attached in an inclined position to a vertical axis, and whirled round by the handle — the tube was fastened by liga- tures to three strips of wood projecting from the axis, as shown at No. 97. With this pump we close our remarks on devices for raising water by atmo- spheric pressure; more might have been added, but as nearly all the machines yet to be described illustrate the same prin- ciple, the reader is referred to the fol- lowing Books, and particularly to the at- mospheric and forcing pumps described in the next one. [The vessels under the pump spouts in Nos. 90, 93 and 94, are Roman bronze buckets from Pompeii.] No. 96. West's Pump. No. 97. Le Demour's Pump. END OP THE SECOND BOOK. BOOK III. MACHINES FOR RAISING WATER BY COMPRESSURE INDEPEfffc ENTLY OF ATMOSPHERIC INFLUENCE. CHAPTER I. DEFINITION of machines described in this Book— Forcing Pumps— Analogy between then? w>db«>» — - —History of the bellows that of the pump — Forcing pumps are water bellows — The Bellows of anU—i luvian origin — Tubal Cain — Anacharsis — Vulcan in his forge — Egyptian, Hindoo, and Peruvian blomn^ tubes — Primitive bellows of goldsmiths in Barbary — Similar instruments employed to eject liquids — i>c- vices to obtain a continuous blast — Double bellows of the Foulah blacksmiths, without valves — Simple Asiatic bellows — Domestic bellows of modern Egypt — Double bellows of the ancient Egyptians — Bel- lows blowers in the middle ages — Lantern bellows common over all the East — Specimens from Agricola — Used by negroes in the interior of Africa — Modern Egyptian blacksmiths' bellows — Vulcan's bellows — Various kinds of Roman bellows — Bellows of Grecian blacksmiths referred to in a prediction of the Delphic oracle — Application of lantern bellows as forcing pumps — Sucking and forcing bellows pumps — Modern domestic bellows of ancient origin — Used to raise water — Commot. blacksmiths' bellows em- ployed as forcing pumps — Ventilation of mines. MACHINES of the third class described in this Book, are such as act by compressure : the water is first admitted into close vessels and then for- cibly expelled through apertures made for that purpose. This is effected in some by compressing the vessels themselves, as in bellows pumps — in others by a solid body impinging on the surface of the liquid, as in fire en- gines— sometimes a column of water is used for the same purpose, at others the expansive force of compressed air. Of the last two, Heron's fountain, air engines, and soda fountains, are examples. Strictly con- sidered, these machines have nothing to do with the pressure of the at- mosphere, (the active principle of those of the second class,) but in prac- tice it is very generally employed. When the working cylinder of a for- cing pump is immersed in the water it is intended to raise, or when the latter flows into it by gravity, it is a forcing pump simply; but when the cylinder is elevated above the water that supplies it, and consequently is then charged by atmospheric pressure, the machine is a compound one, embracing the peculiar properties of both sucking and forcing pumps. The latter therefore differ from the former in raising water above their cylinders; and to elevations that are only limited by the strength of their materials and the power employed to work them. They have been con- sidered by some writers as the oldest of all pumps. We shall consider their varieties in the order in which we suppose they were developed. An intimate connection has ever subsisted between the forcing pump and the bellows ; they are not only identical in principle, but every form adopted in one has been applied to the other. The bellows, from the simple sack or skin employed by the negroes of Africa to the complex and efficient instrument of China, and the enormous blowing machines of 232 Antiquity of Bellows. [Book III. our foundries, has been used to raise water : and every modification of the pump, not even excepting the screw, has been applied as a bellows.* A singular proof of the analogy between them and of their connection in ancient times, is, that in one of the earliest accounts we have of the cylin- drical pump, (viz. by Vitruvius) it was used as a bellows "to supply wind to hydraulic organs." And that rotary pumps are as numerous as rotary bellows, is known to every mechanic. Thus, while pumps have been used as bellows, bellows have been employed as pumps; and every device to obtain a continuous current of air in the one, has been adopted to induce an unbroken stream of water in the other. The history of the bellows is also that of the pump; and if we mistake not it affords the only legitimate source now open in which the origin of the latter can be sought for with any prospect of success. Under this impression we shall examine the bellows of various people, and in doing so the reader will find an auxiliary, but very important branch of the sub- ject, illustrated at the same time, viz. that which relates to VALVES, for the bellows was probably the first instrument of which they formed a part. No other machine equally ancient can be pointed out in which they were required. In fine, the forcing pump is obviously derived from the bel- lows, or rather it is an application of that instrument to blow water in- stead of air — an application probably coeval with its invention. The origin of the arts is generally considered as a subject of mere con- jecture. Antiquarians and historians despair of discovering any thing of importance relating to the early history of any of the simple machines. In the present case, however, there can be no doubt that the Jirst bellows was the mouth \ and it was the first pump too, both atmospheric and forcing. The representation of it when employed as a bellows was a favorite sub- ject with ancient statuaries and painters. Pliny gives several examples, and among others, Stipax the Cyprian, who cast an elegant figure of a boy " roasting and frying meat at the fire, puffing and blowing thereat with his mouth full of wind, to make it burn." Aristoclides, was also cele- brated for a painting of a boy, "blowing hard at the coals ; the whole in- terior of the room appeared to be illuminated with the fire thus urged by the boy's breath, and also what a mouth the boy makes." Holland's Translation. That the bellows is of antediluvian origin, there can be little doubt, for neither Tubal Cain nor any of his pupils could have reduced and wrought iron without it. The tongs, anvil and hammer of Vulcan, (or Tubal Cain) have come down to our times, and although the particular form of his bellows be not ascertained, that instrument is, we believe, as certainly continued in use at the present day, as the tools just named. Nor is there any thing incredible in such belief, for if even the common opinion, that the whole globe was enveloped in the deluge, be true, Noah and his sons, aware that the destinies of their posterity, so far as regarded the arts of civilization, must in a great measure depend upon them, would naturally secure the means of transmitting to them the knowledge of those ma- chines that related to metallurgy, as amon£ the most essential of all. Of these, the bellows was quite as important as any other ; without it, other tools would have been of little avail. Now if we refer to oriental ma- chinery, (among which the bellows of the son of Lamech is to be found if at all,) we shall find, in accordance with its characteristic unchangeable- ness, that the instrument now used over all Hindostan and Asia in gene- ral, and by the modern blacksmiths of Cairo and Rosetta, is identical with aHachette's Traite elementaire des Machines, p. 142. Chap. 1.] Its Origin. 233 that with which the smiths of Memphis, and Thebes, and Heliopolis, urged their fires, between three and four thousand years ago, and is similar to those found figured in the forges of Vulcan on ancient medals and sculptures. Numerous were the forms in which the bellows was anciently made, but the general features of the one to which we allude, (the lantern bellows) have remained as unchangeable as those of blacksmiths them- selves. Strabo attributed the bellows to Anacharsis who lived about 600 years B. C. but it is probable that some particular form of it only was intended, for it is not credible that the Greeks in Solon's time could have been igno- rant of an instrument that is coeval with the knowledge of metals ; and without which the iron mon,ey of Lycurgus, two centuries before, could never have been made. Pliny (B. vii, 56) attributes it with greater pro- priety to the Cyclops, who are supposed to have flourished before the deluge. The prophet Jeremiah, who lived long before Anacharsis, speaks of it in connection with metallurgical operations. "The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire, the founder melteth in vain." Isaiah, who lived still earlier, viz. in the 8th century B. C. alludes to the blacksmith's bellows — "the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire." And Job, nine or ten centuries before the Scythian philosopher flourished, speaks of "a fire not blown." The prophet Ezekiel also speaks of the blast furnace as common — "they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it to melt it." xxii, 20. Homer, as might be supposed, could not fully describe the labors of Vulcan, without referring to this instrument. His account of the great mechanic at work, is equally descriptive of a smith and his forge of the present day. Obscure in smoke, his forges flaming round, While bathed in sweat from fire to fire he flew ; And puffing loud, the roaring bellows blew. ****** Just as the god directs, now loud, now low, They raise a tempest, or they gently blow. Iliad, xvni, 435, 545. Pope. The first approach made to artificial bellows was the application of a reed or other natural tube, through which to direct a stream of air from the mouth — a device that has never passed into desuetude. Such was the ori- gin of the modern blow-pipe, an instrument originally designed to increase the intensity of ordinary fires, but which subsequently became (as the arts were developed) indispensible to primitive workers in metal. How long blowing tubes preceded the invention of other devices for the same pur- pose is uncertain; but from the fact that oriental jewelers and goldsmiths still fuse metal in pots by them, it may be inferred they were the only in- struments in use for ages, before the bellows proper was known: a circum- stance to which their universal employment over all Asia at the present time may be attributed, and the skilful management of them by mechanics there. As the only contrivance for urging fires in primitive times, men would naturally become expert in using them, and, as in all the arts of the East, their dexterity in this respect would be inherited by their chil- dren, and be retained in connection with their use, with that tenacity that has scarcely ever been known to give up an ancient tool or the ancient mode of using it: hence the paucity of their implements; a file, a ham- mer, a pair of tongs, and a blowing tube, being in general all that the budget of an African or Asiatic jeweler contains. As we have given figures of sucking tubes to illustrate the origin of 30 234 Egyptian, Hindoo, and Peruvian Blowpipes. [Book III. the atmospheric pump, we here insert some of blowing tubes, as showing the incipient state of the forcing pump. No. 98. Egyptian using a reed. 1600 B. C. No. 99. Ancient Egyptian Goldsmith. No. 98, represents an Egyptian blowing a fire with a reed. It is from the paintings at Beni Hassan, and extends back through a period of 3,500 years. According to Mr. Wilkinson, the figure is that of a goldsmith, " blowing the fire for melting the gold," but from the comparative large size of the vessel, it would seem rather to be a cauldron in which the ar- ticles were pickled. No. 99, is the figure of a goldsmith either soldering or fusing metal with the blow-pipe, from the sculptures at Thebes. The portable furnace has raised cheeks to confine and reflect the heat. The pipe is of metal with the end enlarged and pointed.* Sonnerat, has given (in the volume of illustrations to his voyages,) a plate representing modern goldsmiths of Hindostan, from which the annexed figure (No. 100) is copied. It will serve to show, when compared with the preceding cuts, what little chan- ges have taken place in some mechani- cal manipulations in the East, from very remote times. A similar figure is in Shoberl's Hindostan. The same mode of fusing their metals was prac- ticed by the ancient gold and silver smiths of Mexico and Peru. Instead of bellows, says Garcilasso, the latter had blow-pipes "made of copper, about a yard long, the ends of which were narrow, that the breath might pass more forcibly by means of the contraction, and as the fire was to be more or less; so accordingly they used eight, ten, or twelve of these pipes at once, as the quantity of metal did require." (Commentaries on Peru, p. 52.) The next step was to apply a leathern bag or sack, formed of the skin of some animal, to one end of the tube (shown in No. 80) as a substitute for the mouth and lungs. The bag was inflated by the act of opening it, or by blowing into it, and its contents expelled by pressure. To svich Homer seems to allude in his account of Eolus assisting Ulysses: The adverse winds in leathern bags he braced, Compressed their force, and locked each struggling blast. Odys. 10. &Ancient bronze tongs or forceps, similar to those in the cut, have been found in Egypt, which retain their spring perfectly. Crucibles similar to those used at the present day have also been discovered. Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the An- cient Egyptians, vol. iii, 224. No. 100. Goldsmith of Hindostan Chap. 1.] Origin of the Valve. — African Bellows. 235 And Ovid: A largess to Ulysses he consigned, And in a steer's tough hide enclosed a wind. Met. xiv. The goldsmiths' bellows of Barbary consists of a goat's skin, having a reed inserted into it: 'he holds the reed with one hand and presses the bag with the other.' (Ed. Encyc. vol. Hi, 258.) The Damaras, a tribe of negroes in Southern Africa mentioned by Barrow, manufacture copper rrngs, &c. from the ore. The bellows they use, he observes, "is made of the skin of a gemsbok, (a species of deer) converted into a sack, with the horn of the same animal fixed to one end for a pipe." Simple instruments of this description have always been applied to eject liquids. Small ones were commonly used by ancient physicians in administering enemas ; a purpose for which they are still used. Large ones were recommended by Apollodorus the architect, a contemporary of Pliny and Trajan, as a substitute for fire engines, when the latter were not at hand. When the upper part of a house was on fire, and no ma- chine for throwing water to be procured, hollow reeds, he observed, might be fastened to leathern bags filled with water, and the liquid pro- jected on the flames by compressing them. As the current of wind from a single sack or bag, necessarily ceased as soon as it was collapsed, some mode of rendering the blast continuous was desirable ; and in the working of iron indispensible. The most ob- vious plan to accomplish this was to make use of two bags, and to work them so that one might be inhaling the air, while the other was expelling it — that is, as one was distended, the other might be compressed. This device we shall find was very early adopted, and by all the nations of antiquity. But by far the most important improvement on the primitive bellows or bag, was the admission of air by a separate opening — a contrivance that led to the invention of the VALVE, one of the most essential elements of hydraulic as well as pneumatic machinery. The first approach to the ordinary valve, was a device that is still common in the bellows of some African tribes. A bag formed of the skin of a goat, has a reed attached to it to convey the blast to the fire ; and the part which covered the neck of the animal is left open for the admission of air. This part is gathered up in the hand when the bag is compressed, and opened when it is distended. No. 101. Bellows of the Foulah Blacksmiths. An improvement upon this primeval device is exhibited in the bellows of the Foulah blacksmiths, on the western coasts of Africa. It consists 236 Primitive Bellows of Asia. [Book III of two calabashes connected together by two hollow bamboos or reeds, in- serted into their sides, and united at an angle to another which leads to the fire, as represented in the figure. A large opening is made on the top of each, and a cylindrical bag or tube made of soft goats' skins stitched or otherwise secured round the edges. The workman seats himself on the ground, and placing the machine between his legs, he grasps the ends of the bags, and by alternately raising each with the mouth open, and pushing it into the calabash when closed, the air in the latter is forced into the fire, and a uniform blast maintained. The action is very similar to that of gathering in the hands the lower edges of two hat linings, and constantly drawing one out and thrusting the other in. The negroes of the Gold Coast are represented to have other kinds of bellows. The principal tools of their smiths, are "a hard stone for an anvil, a pair of tongs and a small pair of bellows, with three or more pipes, which blow very strong — an invention of their own." We have not been able to find any description of these. See Grand Gazetteer, Art. Guinea ; and Histoire Generale, torn, v, 214. Another species equally simple but more efficient, is common in Asia, Africa, and also in Wallachia, Greece and other parts of Europe. The contrivance for admitting the air is an improvement upon the last, but the orifice is still opened and closed by the fingers of the blower. Instead of the mouth of each bag being drawn up in the hand, it is stretched out in the form of a long slit; to the lips of which t\vo strips of wood are sewed. The inner side of each strip is made straight and smooth, so that when brought together, they form a close joint. They are grasped in the middle by the workman, who alternately opens them when he raises the mouth to admit the air, and closes them when he expels it. No. 102 represents the assist- ant of a Hindoo blacksmith, urg- ing his fire with a pair of these instruments, (copied from the volume of plates to Sonnerat's Voyages.) From an inspection of the figure, it will be perceived that the strips facilitate the act of compressing each bag, by their ex- tending quite over it, as well as by their stiffness : in these respects they may be considered as the nucleus of the boards in the com- mon bellows. In this device, the No. 102. Primitive Bellows of Asia. valve becomes further developed. To similar instruments, Mr. Emerson refers in his 'Letters from the Egean.' The crew of a Hy- driot vessel having taken her ashore at Paros to repair the iron clasp of her rudder, an opportunity occurred of examining their bellows. Mr. E. describes them as " a very antique device," consisting of " two sheepskins, united by an iron pipe introduced into the fire, which were alternately dilated with air and compressed, by an Arab slave who knelt above them." With the exception of their not being made of bull's hide but of sheepskin, he observes they would completely suit the description of the bellows given by Virgil in the Fourth Georgic. Blacksmiths in Ceylon use the same kind, but made of bullocks' hides, and furnished with noz- zles of bamboo. The blower seats himself on the ground between the two bags, and works them with his hands, pulling up one and pushing Chap. 1.] Ancient Egyptian Bellows. 237 down the other. (See a figure in Davis' history of that island, and also in the Register of Arts, vol. i, 300.) The domestic, bellows of Egypt is made in the same way, and probably has always been so : to it, Job most likely alluded, (chap/ xx, 26.) " The ordinary hand bellows now used for small fires in Egypt, (says Mr. Wilkinson) are a sort of bag made of the skin of a kid, with an opening at one end like the mouth of a common carpet bag, where the skin is sewed upon two pieces of wood; and these being pulled apart by the hands and closed again, the bag is pressed down and the air thus forced through the pipe at the other end." The next improvement seems to have been that by which the slit was superseded by a flap or clack, so as to be self-acting, as in the ordinary European or American bellows — in other words a valve, that opened by the pressure of the atmosphere when the bag was raised, and which was closed by its own weight or by the elasticity of the confined air. Among the interesting discoveries which recent examinations of Egyptian monu- ments have brought to light, figures of such bellows have been found sculptured in a tomb at Thebes, which bears the name of Thothmes III, one of the Pharaohs who was contemporary with Moses. No. 103 repre- sents four employed at one fire, each pair being worked by the hands and feet of a laborer, and in a manner singularly ingenious and effective ; prov- ing that the Egyptians of those times well knew how to combine muscu- lar energy with the weight of the body to produce a maximum effect. IVo. 103. Egyptian Bellows and Bellows Blowers. 1500 B. C. The bags were secured to frames or to the ground, and appear to have had rings of cane within them to keep the leather extended in a horizontal direction. A separate pipe proceeded from each to the fire. The valves or clacks are not shown because being placed underneath they were out of sight. In working them a laborer stood upon two, one under each foot, and taking two cords in his hands, the lower ends of which were secured to the top of the bags ; he alternately rested his weight upon each to expel the air, and inflated them when exhausted by pulling the cords ; thus the whole weight of his body was uninterruptedly em- ployed in closing one bellows, while the muscular force of his arms was incessantly engaged in opening another. We question if a more simple and efficient application of human effort can be produced. Such bellows were used in Egyptian kitchens, and were indeed neces- sary when the massive cauldrons and huge joints of meat boiled in them, are considered.51 The same practice continued through the middle ages, in Europe, when 'bellows blowers' formed part of the establishment of • Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii, 384. Vol. iii, 339 238 Ancient Egyptian Belloivs. [Book III, royal kitchens, and whose duty it was "to see that soup when on the fire was neither burnt nor smoked. "a Among the relics that formerly be- longed to Guy, the famous Earl of Warwick, is a cauldron or kitchen boiler, made of bell-metal, which contains 120 gallons, but whose capacity does not equal that of more ancient ones.b To the old custom of em- ploying persons exclusively at the bellows, as in the preceding cut, Vir- gil alludes in the following line: One stirs the fire and one the bellows blows. En. viii. Every modern bellows maker would be convinced from an inspection of the last figures, that valves were employed, since the instruments could not possibly have acted without them ; but all doubts respecting an ac- quaintance with the valve in those remote ages when the sculptures were executed, is removed by two other bellows portrayed in the same tomb, and shown in the next cut. These differ from the preceding and were No. 104. Egyptian Bellows in use before the Exodus. perhaps intended to show another variety of the instrument as made in those times. Their upper surfaces seem to have been of wood, in the centre of which, the orifices of the valves are distinctly shown; the valves or clacks were therefore inverted, as in our ordinary bellows turned up- side down. To persons not familiar with the subject, this circumstance might excite surprise, but the class to which these belong have almost al- ways had the valve in the moveable board ; and in whatever position they were used — whether horizontally as in these figures, or vertically as in the next. In Ceylon and other parts of the East they are used as shown in No. 104. But are not both bellows in the last cut double-acting, that is, impelling air from them both when moved up as well as when pushed down1? From the figures it would seem that such were intended; for two pipes are rep- resented as proceeding from each, while one only is connected to those in No. 103 ; and one instrument was deemed sufficient to occupy one la- borer— to this there possibly may be an allusion in the knots on the ends of the cords, which, in the hieroglyphical language of Egypt may sig- nify the greater liability of slipping through the hands, in consequence of the superior force required to work them. Indeed four different bel- lows are represented. In No. 103, two are made of single bags, and two of double ones, as appears by the bands around them : and in No. 104, one is round like the lantern bellows, and the other oblong, both kinds of which are common at this day in the .East; and both, as already re- marked, seem to be double acting like those of our smiths. This variety was probably designedly introduced into the sculptures to aid in conveying to posterity a knowledge of the state of the arts at that time in Egypt. The circumstance is an interesting one, and should lead to a more thorough examination of those wonderful, those eternal records of the arts and sciences of past ages, than has ever been given them ; not only every group but every figure among the millions imprinted on these a Fosbroke's Encyc. Antiq. b Moule's English Counties. Lon. 1831. Chap. 1.] Lantern Bellows. 239 imperishable pages, deserves not merely to be scrutinized, but accurately copied. Many of them are fraught with information of the highest in- terest to the arts; and whether the mass of hieroglyphical records be ever understood or not, there is no difficulty in comprehending the most in- teresting of these. One of the figures in the last illustration is obviously a modification of the )\d lantern bellows (so named from its resemblance to the paper lantern, still common in Egypt:) they consist of two circular boards united to the ends of a cylindrical bag of flexible leather. In the centre of one board is an opening covered by a flap opening inwards, and to the other the tuyere is attached. In working them, the board, through which the air is admitted, is moved, and the other kept stationary. They are quite common in Asia, Egypt, and generally throughout the oriental world; and appear to have undergone no change whatever, either in their materials, form, or modes of working them, since the remotest times: even working them by the feet, as practiced by Egyptians under the Pha- raohs, is still common at the native iron-forges of Ceylon. Dr. Davy in his account of that island has given a figure of them, a copy of which is inserted in the Register of Arts for 1828, page 267: the cords for raising them are attached to an elastic stick, instead of being held in the hands as in the two last cuts. They are used by modern blacksmiths of Egypt in a horizontal position, (as in the next figure) and worked by an upright lever, which the assist- ant pushes from and draws towards him. M. P. S. Girard has given a figure and description of them in the Grande Description, torn, ii, E. M. p. 618, planche 21. He observes that the coppersmiths of Cairo and Alexandria use the same; and further that they are common in the inte- rior of Africa: "leur forme est probablement tres ancienne. II resulte en effet de quelques reseignemens que m'ont donnes des marchands venus avec les caravanes de Darfour, que des soufflets de la mdme forme sorit employe par les peuples de Vinterieur de V Afrique" Lantern bellows were formerly common in Europe. They were em- ployed in old organs. See L'Art du Facteur d'Orgues, Arts et Metieres, p. 667, plates 132 and 135. Sometimes the blowers had their feet fixed upon the upper boards, and holding by a horizontal bar they inflated one bellows by raising one foot, and compressed the other by pushing down the other foot. (JEncyc. Antiq.) The scabilla of the Romans were small bellows of the same kind, one of which was attached to one foot for the purpose of beating time, and with castanets were used to animate dancers. Several are figured by Montfaucon. The ancients varied the form of the bellows almost infinitely in adapting them to various purposes. Some were attached to altars to aid in the combustion of victims : one for this purpose is represented on one of the Hamilton vases. Lantern bellows were also common in European blast furnaces. No. 105 shows their ap- plication to this purpose, copied from the De Re Metallica of Agricola. Similar bellows, except the boards being of an oblong form like the one in 103, are common in Hindostan, and worked by hand as in the next figure, but without any frame to support them; the blower kneels and works them in nearly a vertical position. See a figure in Shoberl's Hin- dostan, vol. v, p. 9. The bellows of Vulcan were probably of the same kind. Those repre- sented in torn, i, p. 24, of Montfaucon's Antiquities, appear, from that portion of them which is seen projecting from the back of the forge, to be identical with those in No. 105, and worked in precisely the same way. In plate xx, on Painting, of D'Agincourt's History of the Fine 240 Blacksmith* 's Bellows of Ancient Greece. [Book III. Arts, which contains some illustrations of the Eneid, executed in the 4th and 5th centuries, Vulcan's forge is represented and the bellows blower behind it, apparently with the same kind of instrument as here shown. No. 105. Lantern Bellows from Agncola That Vulcan's bellows were not permanent fixtures as those of our smiths are, but were similar to those figured above, appears from their having been laid aside when not in use, in common with other implements of the forge ; a practice usual at the present time in various parts of the east : and we may add that like modern blacksmiths of Asia, he sat at work. Thus, when his wife Charis informed him of the arrival of Thetis at their dwelling, he replied : — Haste, then, and hospitably spread the board For her regale, while with my best despatch I lay my bellows and my tools aside, He spake, and vast in bulk and hot with toil, Rose limping from his anvil-stock, Upborne with pain on legs tortuous and weak : First, from the forge dislodg'd he thrust apart His bellows, and his tools collecting all, Bestowed them careful in a silver chest. And when he subsequently returned to make the armor which Thetis required for her son, he to his bellows quick repaired, Which turning to the fire, he bade them move. — //. xvm. — Cowper. A singular circumstance is related by Herodotus, which shows that the same mode of obtaining a continuous blast, viz. by two bellows, (and in all probability by the same kind as those above figured) was employed by blacksmiths in ancient Greece. The Lacedemonians having been repeat- edly defeated by the Tegeans, sent an embassy to the Delphic oracle, to ascertain the means by which they could overcome them. The Pythian assured them of success if they recovered the body of Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, which had been buried several centuries somewhere in Arcadia, the land of their enemies. Being unable to discover the tomb they sent a second time to inquire concerning the place of his interment, when they received the following answer* Chap. 1.] Bellows Forcing Pumps. 241 A plain within th' Arcadian land I know, Where double winds with forced exertion blow, Where form to form with mutual strength replies, And ill by other ills supported lies; That earth contains the great Atrides' son; Take him and conquer : Tegea then is won. On the receipt of this, search was again made for the body without inter- mission, and at last it was discovered in a singular manner. At the time a commercial intercourse existed between the two countries, a Spartan cav- alry officer, named LICHAS, being in Tegea, happened to visit a smith at his forge, and observing with particular curiosity the process of working the iron, the smith desisted from his labor and addressed him thus: "Stranger of Sparta, you seem to admire the art which you contemplate; but how much more would your wonder be excited, if you knew all that I am able to communicate! Near this place, as I was sinking a well, I found a coffin seven cubits long. I never believed that men were formerly of larger dimensions than at present, but when I opened it, I discovered a body equal in length to the coffin — I correctly measured it, and placed it where I found it." Lichas, after hearing this relation, was induced to believe that this might be the body of Orestes, concerning which the oracle had spoken. He was further persuaded, when he recollected that the bellows of the smith might intimate the two witids; the anvil and the hammer might express one form opposing another; the iron also, which was beaten, might signify ill succeeding ill, rightly conceiving that the use of iron operated to the injury of mankind. The result proved the sagacity of the Spartan : the body was recovered, and finally the Tegeans, says Herodotus, were conquered. Clio, 67, 68. No. 106. Double Lantern Bellows Pump. No. 107. Single Forcing Pump. The application of lantern bellows as forcing pumps is, without doubt, of great antiquity : their adaptation to raise water was too obvious not to have been early perceived, and hence we infer that they were at least oc- casionally employed for that purpose by most of the nations of old. Such pumps are mentioned in old works on hydraulics ; but as they have never 31 242 Bellows Forcing Pumps. [Book III come into general use, even in modern times, a particular account of them previous to the art of printing, is not to be expected. A writer in the Grande Description of Egypt, describing the smith's bellows of that coun- try, observes : — " Ces sortes de soufflets etoient employes verticalement dans le seizieme siecle tant pour animer le feu des forges que pour clever I' eau, soit en rarefiant 1'air soit en le comprimant ; ils sont decrits dans 1'ouvrage de Ramelli, imprime en 1558." No. 106 represents a double lantern bellows-pump, as used in the 16th century. The mode of its operation is too obvious to require detailed description. As one bellows is distended by working the lever, the at- mosphere drives water up the suction-pipe into its cavity ; and the other at the same time being compressed, expels its contents through the ascending or forcing pipe : the valves at the lower part of the latter, and those over the orifices of the two branches of the suction-pipe opening and closing, as shown in the figure. There is a pump similar to this, but geared in a different manner, in Hachette's Traite elementaire des machi- nes. Papin, in a way to raise water, which he proposed enigmatically in the Philosophical Transactions in 1685, used the lantern bellows as a forcing-pump. In a solution by another writer, it is said : — " A vessel made like the body of a pair of bellows, or those puffs heretofore used by barbers being filled with water, a piece of clockwork put under it, may produce the jets." Phil. Trans. Abridg., vol. i. 539. A similar appli- cation of the bellows was described in Besson's Theatre, in 1579, the moveable board being impelled by a spring. No. 107 is another example of bellows forcing-pumps. It consists ©f the frictionless piston of Gosset and Deville, (No. S3,) but without a valve ; a forcing or ascending pipe, having its lower orifice covered by a valve, is 'attached to the cylinder below the piston. Purnps of this kind have also been made double acting, by passing the piston rod through a stuffing box on the top of the cylinder, and by a double set of valves arranged as in the pump of La Hire. Of late years machines like those figured in the two last cuts, have been reintroduced into Europe and this country. Although we have not heard of any one having run out of his wits for joy at their discovery, like the blacksmith mentioned by Cardan, we have heard of some who were nearly in that predicament from disappointment in having found themselves anticipated. A few years ago they were an- nounced in this city as a new and very important discovery ; and several gentlemen allowed their names to go abroad as vouchers of their origina- lity and superiority over the common pump. The proofs of the antiquity of many of our ordinary utensils are derived from representations of them on vases, candelabra, and other works of art that have come down. Of this, the domestic bellows is an example ; the only evidence of its having been known to the Greeks or Romans, is furnished by a lamp ; but for the preservation of which, it might have been deemed a modern invention. Of no other article of ancient house- hold furniture are more specimens extant than of lamps, and not a little of the public and private economy of the ancients has been illustrated by them. Amo-ig those in private collections and public museums, are some that were once suspended in temples, others that illuminated theatres and baths — that decorated the banqueting-rooms of wealthy patricians, as well as such as glimmered in the dwellings of plebeians ; the former are of bronze, elaborately wrought and enriched, the latter mostly of earthen- ware. The fertility of conception displayed in these utensils is wonderful. All nature seems to have been ransacked for devices, and in modifying Chap. 1.] Bellows Pumps from Kircher. 243 them, the imaginations of the designers ran perfectly wild ; while many are in their forms and decorations exquisitely chaste, others are bizarre and tome are obscene. There is one of bronze on which an individual is represented blowing the flame with his mouth, as in the act of kindling a fire ; and in another the artist has introduced, as an appropriate embellish- ment, a person performing the same operation with a pair of bellows, of precisely the same form as those in our kitchens. No. 108 is a figure of this lamp, from the 5th volume of Montfaucon's Antiquities. No. 108. Bellows figured on a Roman Lamp. No. 109. Bellows Forcing Pumps from Kircher. An example of the application of such bellows as atmospheric pumps has already been given, page 207. The adjoining figure (No. 109) is copied from Kircher's Mundus Subterraneus, torn, i., p. 230, Amsterdam, 1665 : it represents two large bellows employed as sucking and forcing pumps, being worked by a water wheel, to the axis of which the crank repre sented was attached. Bellows like the last and worked in a similar manner, were among an- cient devices for ventilating mines : the various modes of adapting them to the purpose may be adduced as another example of their analogy to pumps. Sometimes they were used to force down fresh air in sufficient quantities to render the impure and stagnant atmosphere below respira- ble ; at others they drew the foul air up. In the first case, they were placed near the mouth of the shaft, a pipe was attached to the nozzle and continued down to the place where the miners worked, and when the bel- lows were put in motion, currents of fresh air were supplied. In the latter case, the pipe was connected to the opening in the under board, i. e. to the aspirating valve, through which the impure air was drawn, and then expelled out of the nozzle ; but in this case an expiring valve was required in the nozzle, opening outwards to prevent air from entering through it when the bellows were again distended. The same result was sometimes obtained in the following manner : An opening was made and covered by a valve in the upper board instead of the lower one, and when the bellows were distended, the impure air rushed up the pipe which was attached to the nozzle, and was expelled through the opening covered by the flap when the bellows were closed. Several figures re- presenting these and other applications of bellows are given by Agricola. Goguet observes that draft furnaces were probably invented early, but bellows were not. We should suppose the reverse was the fact; for the advantages of an artificial blast must have been obvious from the first 244 Piston Bellows. [Book III. use of fire, and naturally led to the use of the mouth to blow it, then the reed, sack, and subsequently a slit or valve in the latter, would follow as an almost necessary sequence ; and long before the idea of increasing the intensity of heat by flues or chimneys could have been thought of. No natural occurrence could have led to the invention of these before the other, nor has there, as yet, been found any account or representation of draft furnaces of equal antiquity with those of bellows. CHAPTER II. PISTON Bellows : Used in water organs — Engraved on a medal of Valentinian — Used in Asia and Africa. Bellows of Madagascar. Chinese bellows : Account of two in the Philadelphia Museum — Remarks on a knowledge of the pump among the ancient Chinese — Chinese bellows similar in their construction to the water-forcer of Ctesibius, the double acting pump of La Hire, the cylindrical steam- eugine, and condensing and exhausting air-pumps. Double acting bellows of Madagascar — Alledged ignorance of the old Peruvian and Mexican smiths of bellows : Their constant use of blowing tubes no proof of this — Example* from Asiatic gold and silver smiths — Balsas — Sarbacans — Mexican Vulcau. Natural bellows-pumps : Blowing apparatus of the whale — Elephant — Rise and descent of marine ani- mals— Jaculator fish — Llama — Spurting Snake — Lamprey — Bees — The heart of man and animals — Every human being a living pump : Wonders of its mechanism, and of the duration of its motions and materials — Advantages of studying the mechanism of animals. THE bellows described in the last chapter are all formed of leather or skins, and are obvious modifications of the primitive bag or sack ; the wooden ends of some of them being adopted merely to facilitate their distension and collapsion. From the simplicity of their construction and general efficiency they still retain a place in our workshops and dwell- ings, and are in no danger of being replaced by modern substitutes : but the ingenuity of ancient bellows makers was not exhausted on these, for they had others, differing both in form, materials and mode of ac- tion ; viz: piston bellows; machines identical with cylindrical forcing- pumps. At what time these were first devised we have no account ; but as they are described by Vitru- vius, in his account of hydraulic or- gans, without the slightest intima- tion of their being then of recent date, they may safely be classed among those inventions, the origin of which is too remote to be dis- covered. No. 110 represents a person work- ing two of them to supply wind for a water organ, from Barbarq's Vi- truvius, Venice, 1567. They are sub- No, no. Roman Piston Bellows. Jtanrially the same as those figured by .Perrault and Newton in their translations, and by Kircher in his Musurgia Universalis, (torn, ii, 332.) Chap. 2.] Piston Bellows of Mindanao. 245 The blower, by alternately raising one piston and depressing the other, pumped air into a large reservoir : this was an open vessel inverted into another containing water, and as the air accumulated in the former, the liquid was gradually displaced and rose in the latter, as in a gas holder. It was the constant pressure exerted by this displaced water that urged the air through the pipes of the organ, whenever the valves for its admission were opened. The question, perhaps may be asked, Why did the ancients prefer these bellows in their organs to those formed of leather and boards, such as are figured at Nos. 105, 108, 109 ? Probably because the pressure required to be overcome in forcing air into the reser- voirs was greater than the form and materials of the latter could safely bear. It is very obvious from the brief description of the piston bellows of the Romans, that they were calculated to produce much stronger blasts than could be obtained from those made of leather. Vitruvius informs us that the cylinders and valves were made of brass, and the pistons were accurately turned, and covered (or packed) with strips of unshorn sheep- skins. They seem to have been perfect condensing air-pumps. A figure of an ancient hydraulic organ is preserved on a medal of Val- entinian : two men, one on each side, are represented as pumping and listening to its music. This medal is engraved in the third volume of Montfaucon's Antiquities, (plate 26,) but the piston rods only are in sight ; the top of the cylinders being level with the base on which the blowers stand. As piston bellows were known in the old world, it might be supposed they would still be employed in those parts of the East where the arts and customs of former ages have been more or less religiously retained. Such is the fact ; for like other devices of ancient common life, they are used by several of the half civilized tribes of Asia and Africa — people, among whom we are sure to meet with numerous primitive contrivances, embodied in the same rude forms and materials as they were before Grecian taste or Roman skill improved them. It is chiefly to the in- cidental observations of a few travelers that we are indebted for a know- ledge of these implements in modern days ; but when the times arrive for voyages of discovery to be undertaken for the purpose of describing the machines, manufactures and domestic utensils of the various nations of the earth ; (undertakings of equal importance with any other,) these bellows and their numerous modifications will furnish materials for a chap- ter in the history of the useful arts that will be replete with interesting information. As they are clearly identified with the forcing-pump, an account of some of them will not be out of place. Dampier thus describes the bellows used by the blacksmiths of Min- danao. " They are made of a wooden cylinder, the trunk of a tree, about three feet long, bored hollow like a pump, and set upright on the ground; on which the fire itself is made. Near the lower end there is a small hole in the side of the trunk next the fire made to receive a pipe ; through which the wind is driven to the fire by a great bunch of fine feathers., fastened to one end of a stick, which closing up the inside of the cylinder, drives the air out of the cylinder through the pipe. Two of these trunks, or cylinders, are placed so nigh together, that a man standing between them may work them both at once, one with each hand."* Here we have both the single and double chambered forcing-pump; and although Dam- pier has not noticed the valves, the instruments were certainly furnished with them, or with some contrivance analogous to them, but being out of a Dampier's Voyages, i. 332. 246 Piston Bellows of Madagascar, [Book IIL sight, were left unnoticed by that intelligent sailor. The bellows of Mada- gascar, says Sonnerat, " is composed of the hollow trunks of two trees tied together. In the bottom there are two iron funnels, and in the inside of each trunk a sucker furnished with raffia, which supplies the place of tow. The apprentice, whose business it is to use this machine, alternately sinks one of the suckers while he raises the other."5 Similar implements are also used in smelting iron as well as in forging it. In the first volume of Ellis's " History of Madagascar," Lon. 1838, there is a representation of two men reducing iron ore by means of four piston bellows. No. Ill is a copy. No. 111. Piston Bellows of Madagascar. The furnace is described as a mere hole dug in the ground, lined with rude stonework and plastered with clay. It was filled with alternate layers of charcoal and ore, and covered by a conical roof of clay, a small opening being left at the apex. The bellows were formed of the trunks of trees, and stood five feet above the ground, in which they were firmly imbedded. The lower ends were closed " air tight," and a short bamboo tube conveyed the wind from each to the fire, as represented. " A rude sort of piston is fitted to each of the cylinders, and the apparatus for rais- ing the wind is complete." As no mention is made of valves nor of the openings through which air entered the cylinders, it is probable that the pistons were perforated for that purpose, and the passages covered by naps or valves opening downwards, a device which the artificers of Madagascar are acquainted with. See No. 114. These bellows are of various sizes, though generally from 4 to 6 inches in diameter. Sometimes only one is used, but it is then made of larger dimensions, and the blower stands and works it with both his hands. To do it conveniently, he raises himself on a bank of earth. The bellows are not always perpendicular, but are inclined as figured in the back ground of the cut. b Sonnerat's Voyages, iii. 36. Chap. 2.] Southern Asia and, Western Africa. 247 The blacksmiths of Java use the same kind. Raffles, in his History of the Island, (2 vol. 193,) after quoting Dampier's description of the bel- lows of Mindanao, observes his account " exactly corresponds" with that of Java. " The blacksmiths' bellows of Sumatra" says Mr. Marsden, " are thus constructed : two bamboos of about four inches diameter and five feet in length, stand perpendicularly near the fire, open at the upper end and stopped below. About an inch or two from the bottom a small joint of bamboo is inserted into each, which serve as nozzles, point- ing to and meeting at the fire. To produce a stream of air, bunches of feathers, or other soft substance, are worked up and down in the upright tubes like the piston of a pump. These, when pushed downwards, force the air through the small horizontal tubes ; and by raising and sinking each alternately, a continual current of air is kept up."c The Baskee Islanders use the same kind of bellows.d The smiths of Bali have them also : " their instruments are few and simple, their forge small, and worked by a pair of upright bellows, such as we find described in Raf- fles' Java."6 They are not confined to southern Asia and the Ethiopian Archipelago, but are used in continental Africa. " The bellows of the negro artificers on the Gambia, are a thick reed or a hollow piece of wood, in which is put a stick wound about with feathers, [a piston,] which by moving of the stick, makes tlie wind."f Without entering into the controversy respecting the origin of wooden bellows, it may be inferred from the preceding extracts, that such have been in use from remote times ; and that the cylindrical forcing-pump, so far as regards the principle of its construction, is equally ancient : of this, the instrument now to be described, aifords another indication. It is the bellows of the most numerous and most singular of all existing people — a people, the wisdom of whose government has preserved them as a na- tion, through periods of time unexampled in the history of the world, and which still preserves them amidst the prostration by European cupidity of nearly all the nations around them ; a people, too, who notwithstanding all that our vanity may suggest to depreciate, have furnished evidence of an excellence in some of the arts that never has been surpassed. The Chinese, like the ancient Egyptians, whom they greatly resemble, have been the instructors of Europeans in several of the useful arts; but the pu- pils, like the Greeks of old, have often refused to acknowledge the source whence many inventions possessed by them were derived, but have claimed them as their own : of the truth of this remark, we need only mention printing, the mariner's compass, and gunpoivder. In the bellows of the Chinese, we perceive the characteristic ingenuity and originality of that people's inventions. A description and figure of their bellows were published in London, 1757, by Mr. Chambers, in a work en- titled " Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines and Utensils, from drawings made in China." The following account from the fourth volume of the " Chinese Repository," a very interesting work published at Canton in China, is substantially the same. " The bellows used by them is very aptly called ' Fung Seang, ' wind box/ and is contained in an oblong box about two feet long, ten inches high, and six inches wide. These dimensions, however, vary according to the whim of the maker, and they occur from eight inches, to four feet or more in length, and so of the width and height. The annexed profile view will give Borne idea of the principle upon which it is constructed." c History of Sumatra, p. 181. d Dampier's Voyages, i. 429. e Chinese Repository* iv. 455. f Ogihy's Africa, Lon. 1670, p. 356. 248 Chinese Bellows. [Book III. " A, B, C, D, is a box divided into two chambers at the line O H. In the upper one is the piston E, which is moved backwards and forwards by means of the handles attached to it; and is made to fit closely by means of leather or paper. No. 112. Section of a Chinese Bellows. pap< The lid of the box slides upon the top, and is suffi- ciently thick to allow the workman to labor upon it. At F J are two small holes each covered with a valve ; and just below them, at O H in the divi- sion of the two chambers, are larger holes, for the entrance of the wind into the lower chamber. This part of the bellows is made of a thick plank, hollowed into an ovoid form, and is about an inch thick. The clapper G is fastened to the back side of the box, and plays hori- zontally against the two stops placed near the mouth I. It is made as high as the chamber, and when forced against the stop, it entirely closes the passage of air beyond. When the piston is forced inwards, as repre- sented in the cut, the valve at F is closed, and that at J is opened ; and thus the upper chamber is constantly filled with air. The wind driven into the lower chamber by the piston urges the clapper G against the stop, and is consequently forced out at the mouth. The stream of air is unin- terrupted, but not equable, though in the large ones the inequality is hardly perceived. An iron tube is sometimes attached to the mouth which leads to the furnace, and in other cases the mouth itself is made of iron." The Chinese generally use them in an inclined or horizontal position, frequently making use of the upper side as a work bench. In the figure (and the one given by Chambers) two rods are connected to the piston to prevent it from springing when used : this appears to be the practice with regard to those of large dimensions. In small ones a single rod is sometimes used, and the chamber is cylindrical. In the collection of M. Bertin, (a French minister and secretary of state in the former part of the last century,) which contained " about 400 original drawings, made at Pekin, of the arts and manufactures of China " a portable and single-acting bellows is represented as in the next figure.a " This instrument is made like a box in which is a piston, so constructed that when it is drawn out behind, the vacuum which it oc- casions in the box makes the air rush in with great impetuosity through a lateral opening, to which a sucker [a valve] is af- fixed : and when the pis- ton returns in an inverse direction, the sucker No. 113. Chinese Single Bellows, and Tinker. [valve] closes itself, and the air is forced out by the opposite extremity." Navarette preferred the 8 China, its Customs, Arts, &c., translated from the French. Lon. 1824 ; vol. i. 17. Chap. 2.] Chinese Bellows in the Philadelphia Museum. 249 Chinese bellows to the European one, he said it was more commodious and efficient.5 It is employed to some extent in Java, having been intro- duced from China.0 Since the preceding remarks were written, we have examined two bellows from China, in the splendid "Chinese Collection" in Philadelphia. One of them belonged to a traveling blacksmith. It is formed of a cylin- drical joint of bamboo, 2 J feet in length, and between five and six inches diameter. The piston rod is a wire J or f of an inch thick, with a small gimlet handle. Air is admitted through a cluster of five or six small holes in each end, which are covered in the inside by paper flaps : these are the induction valves, marked J F in No. 112. Along one side of the bellows a strip of wood 2£ inches wide and Ij thick, is secured by what appears to be eight small thumb screws, and the junction made tight by cement or wax ; this projecting piece resembles those on the sides of high pressure steam-engine cylinders, and is intended for a somewhat similar purpose, its interior being hollowed into a passage for the wind when expelled by the piston from either end of the cylinder. A short metallic tube conveys the wind from the middle of this piece to the furnace as in No. 112. The ends of the bellows are secured from splitting by two thin and narrow iron hoops, and at one place a small clamp is driven across a crack, as is sometimes practiced in mending woode^ bowls. The instrument resem- bles the one in the last figure, but is double acting: the figure of the artist accompanying it is seated on the ground and works it with one hand while he attends the fire with the other. The other bellows consists of a long box like the one figured at No. 112. From the circumstance of its not being confined in a glass case, and per- mission to examine its interior having been politely accorded, we had an opportunity of ascertaining some particulars that are not mentioned in any- published account of these instruments that has fallen in our way. It is twenty-two inches long, seven deep, and five wide, made of thin boards of a species of fir and extremely light : the sides and ends are dovetailed together ; and the bottom appeared to be intended to slide over the sides, having strips projecting from it and no pins or nails visible ; this arrange- ment enables a person to examine the interior, and to replace or repair the valves, &c. with great facility. The boards of which the machine is made are of a uniform thickness (about f of an inch) except the top, which is 1^ inches. The reason for this extra thickness was perceived as soon as it was removed, (it was secured to the sides and ends by long wooden pins,) for a deep and wide groove is made through its whole length with the exception of J of an inch at each end, and at the middle of the groove a passage is cut at right angles to it through one side for the air to pass into the tuyere. Upon the removal of this thick cover, the inside of the box was not exposed, for another thin one was found inserted within the sides, and flush with their edges. This was a board slipped between the sides and resting upon the upper edge of the piston, having two openings, one at each end, which coincided with the groove in the outer cover, (the inner cover is represented by the line H O in No. 112 ;) hence the wind is driven by the piston alternately through each opening into the groove, and by the action of the valve in the middle of the latter, is compelled to pass into the tuyere. This valve is represented at G in No. 112, and from an inspection of that cut, it will be apparent that some contri- vance of the kind is absolutely necessary, in order to prevent the wind when forced from one end of the bellows, from passing along the groove b Histoire Generate, Tom. viii. 106. c Raffles' Java, ii. 193. 31 250 Analogy between the Pump and Chinese Bellows. [Book III, into the other end : it consists of a narrow piece of hard wood of the same depth as the groove, and of a length that rather exceeds the width of the groove. A hole is drilled through one end and a pin driven through it into the solid part of the cover, so that it turns freely on this pin, ai.d closes and opens a passage for the escape of the wind into the tuyere. It is driven by the wind at every stroke of the piston against the opposite cheek of the groove, and thus prevents the wind from passing into the other end of the cylinder, as shown at G in No. 112. It is surprising how easily this valve plays although its upper and lower edges rub against the surfaces of the two covers — a trifling movement of the piston drives it against the cheek, and occasions a snapping sound somewhat like that from the contact of metal. When the inner cover was raised out of its place, the piston and induc- tion valves were exposed to view, and the simplicity and efficiency of these parts were in keeping with the rest : the two valves are mere flaps of paper, glued at their lotver edges to the under side of the openings, and hence they stand nearly perpendicular, instead of being suspended from above ; the slightest impulse of air closed them. The pkton is half an inch thick, but is reduced at the edges to a quarter of one ; it appears to be formed of two thin pieces which, united, are equal in thickness to that mentioned ; and between them aijp inserted two small sheets of moderately stiff paper, which project an inch over every side. The part that pro- jects is folded at the corners and turned over the edges of the piston ; one sheet being turned one way, and the other the contrary, so that when the piston is moved, the air presses the paper against the sides of the bel- lows and renders the piston perfectly tight, on the same principle as the double cupped leathers of fire-engines and other forcing-pumps ; and at the same time without any perceptible increase of friction. The two pis- ton rods are half inch square, and work through holes in one end of the box without any stuffing-box. The whole machine is of wood, except the paper for the piston and valves. Although the instrument appears to be a rectangular box, it is not exactly so, the bottom being a little wider than the top. It would be superfluous to point out the application of piston bellows to raise water, since they are perfect models of our atmospheric and forcing- pumps. Why, then, it may be asked are not the Chinese found in the possession of the latter '$ In reply to this question, it may be observed : 1. That from our imperfect knowledge of the people, it is not certain that such machines have not been, and are not used to a limited extent in the interior of that great empire. 2. That custom, and probably experience, have induced them, in common with other nations of the Oriental world, to give the preference to more simple devices — to their chain pump, bam- boo wheel, &c., a preference which we know is in some instances based on solid grounds : for example, the chain pump as used by them, raises more water with the same amount of labor, than any atmospheric or forc- ing-pump, if placed under the same circumstances. And as for the noria or bamboo wheel, which driven by a current, raises water night and day, and from 20 to 50 feet, we are told that it answers the purpose "as com- pletely as the most complicated European machine could do; and I will answer for it [says Van Braam] that it does not occasion an expense of ten dollars." 3. A circumstance connected with one of their ancient as well as modern scenic representations, shows that when \heforcing or spouting of water is required, their artists are at no loss for devices to effect it; and that, too, under very unusual circumstances. One of the pantomimes per- formed at Pekin is the " Marriage of the Sea with the Land" The Chap. 2.] Antiquity of the Chinese Bellows. 251 latter divinity made a display of Jiis wealth and productions, such as dra- gons, elephants, tigers, eagles, ostriches, chestnut and pine trees, &c.. The Ocean, on the other hand, collected whales, dolphins, porpoises and other sea monsters, together with ships, rocks, shells, &c., " all these ob- jects were represented by performers concealed under cloths, and who played their parts admirably. The two assemblages of productions, ter- restrial and marine, made the tour of the stage, and then opened right and left to leave room for an immense whale, which placed itself directly before the emperor, and spouted out several hogsheads of water, which inundated the spectators who were in the pit."a As both the water and forcing apparatus were contained within the moving figure, we can only imagine the jets to have been produced by means of piston or bellows forcing-pumps, or something analogous to them — or by air condensed in one or more vessels containing water, like soda fountains. 4. If Chinese lads never discovered a source of amusement in the application of their bellows (some of which are only eight inches long) as squirts or pumps, they must differ essentially from lads of other nations — a position that few judges of human nature would admit. Boys are the same in all ages, and the mischievous youngsters of the Celestial Empire have doubtless often derived as much pleasure from annoying one another with water ejected from these implements, as those of Europe and this country do with similar devices. Such an application of them was sure to be found out by boys, if by no one else. Whether the bellows-pump originated in this manner or not, may be uncertain, but several useful discoveries have been brought to light in much the same way : it was a youth who changed the whole character of the steam- engine, by giving it that feature upon which its general utility depends — his ingenuity, stimulated by a love of play, rendered it self-acting. The antiquity of the Chinese bellows is a subject of much interest. It may have been the instrument which Anacharsis introduced into Greece, it having, perhaps, been employed by his countrymen, the ancient Scythians, as well as by their descendants, the modern Tartars. If it has been in use, as supposed, from times anterior to Grecian and Roman eras, the origin of the pump in the second century B. C. can hardly be sustained; for when the induction valves of one of these bellows are placed in water, (as we suppose has occasionally been done ever since its invention,) it is then the "water forcer" of Ctesibius ; and if pipes be connected to F and J, (No. 112,) and their orifices placed in a liquid, the apparatus becomes the double acting pump of La Hire. But what may be surprising to some persons, its construction is identical with that of the steam-engine ; for let it be furnished with a crank and fly wheel to regulate the movements of its piston, and with apparatus to open and close its valves, then admit steam through its nozzle, and it becomes the double acting engine of Boul- ton and Watt. Again, connect its induction orifices to a receiver, and it becomes an exhausting air-pump ; apply its nozzle to the same vessel, and it is a condensing one. The most perfect blowing machine, and the chef d'aeuvre of modern modifications of the pump, are also its fac-sirniles. It would seem that the Chinese have other kinds of bellows, or differ- ent modes of working these. Bell, in his account of the Russian embassy in 1720, says that he was lodged in a village twelve miles from Pekin in a cook's house, which gave him an opportunity of observing the customs of the people even on trifling occasions : " My landlord," he observes, " be- ing in his shop, I paid him a visit, where I found six kettles placed in a a China, its Costumes, &c., iii. 34. 252 Double acting Bellows of Madagascar. [Book IIL row on furnaces, having a separate opening under each of them for re- ceiving the fuel, which consisted of a few small sticks and straw. On his pulling a thong, he blew a pair of bellows which made all his kettles boil in a very short time."0 Like other Asiatics, the Chinese have proba- bly a variety of these instruments. The van, or winnowing machine, which we have received from them, is a rotary bellows. See page 70 of this volume. Various rotary bellows are described by Agricola, as employed in the ventilation of mines, and worked by men with cranks, and in one instance by a horse treading on the periphery of a wheel.d Rotary blowing machines have been represented as of more recent origin, but they are in all probability of great antiquity. The Spaniards introduced them into Peru as early as 1545, to reduce the silver ores, but they were soon aban- doned.6 For rotary pumps, see a subsequent chapter of this book. We are indebted for some interesting information respecting the arts of various islanders of the Indian ocean to Mr. William Clark of Philadel phia, who, besides spending several years in whaling voyages, resided two years in Southern Africa. The vessel to which he was attached hav- ing on one occasion touched on the coast of Madagascar, some native smiths were found using bellows that excited particular attention ; some were cylindrical, being formed of bored logs, others were square trunks, five or six inches in diameter, and about five feet long ; but the internal construction, of both was the same. The ship's carpenter was permitted to open one. It was composed of four planks that had been split from trees, the insides shaved smooth and straight, and the whole put together with wooden pins instead of nails or screws. It was divided into two parts by a partition or disk, which was permanently secured in its place, (shown at A in the annexed cut,) where, like a piston, it occupied the entire space across. On one side of the trunk, and opposite the edge of A, an opening was made for the insertion of the tube C that conveyed the wind to the fire, the edge of A at this place being feather- ed, and a small projecting piece added to it, in order to direct the current of air from either side of the partition into C. An opening was made in the centre of A, through which a smooth piston rod B, played ; two pistons or boards, P P, accu- rately fitted to work in the trunk, were attached on opposite sides of the partition to B ; these pis- tons were perforated, and the openings covered by flaps or valves like those of a common pump box, but the upper one was secured to the under side of the piston as shown in the figure. The trunk rested on four short pieces of wood pegged to it. In some, holes were made at the lower part for the admission of air. These bellows were there- fore double acting, and consequently one of them was equal in its effects to two of those represented at No. Ill, which drive the air out only on the de- scent of the piston, whereas these forced it into the fire both on ascending and descending. Thus, when the blower raised the rod B, the flap on the lower piston closed, and the air in that division of d De Re Metallica, pp. 162, 163, 164, 169. e Garcilasso's No. 114. Double Acting Bel lows of Madagascar. c Bell's Travels, i. 312. Commentaries, p. 347. Chap. 2.] On the Bellows among the Peruvians. 253 the trunk was expelled through C ; at the same time the flap of the upper piston was opened by its own weight and the air passing through it, and on the descent of B all the air in the upper part of the trunk was forced into the fire in like manner; hence an uninterrupted, though not an equable blast of wind was kept up. The whole apparatus was of wood except the flaps, which were pieces of green hide rendered pliable by working them in the hands ; and they were prevented from opening too far by narrow slips of the same material pegged over them. There was no packing to the pistons, but they were moved with great rapidity. These bellows are different from those described by Dampier, Sonnerat and Ellis, as used in the same island ; but they serve to corroborate a re- mark that has been made by several travelers, viz : that the negroes of Africa are in possession of a great variety of those instruments. The one above described is a fine specimen of their ingenuity, for there can be little doubt that it is original with them — it evidently is not derived from the double acting bellows of China, nor can it have been procured from Europe, since nothing of the kind has, we believe, ever been used there. It is the only bellows that we have met with having valves in the pistons. It need hardly be observed that double pumps have been made on the same principle. There is one figured by Belidor in the second volume of his Architecture Hydraulique, which differs from the above figure only in having two short piston rods connected together by a frame on the outside of the cylinder, instead of one long one working through the disk. No stronger proofs could possibly be adduced of the analogy between pumps and bellows, than what the figures in this and the preceding chapter afford. While engaged on this part of the subject we were induced to refer again to the accounts of the old Mexicans and Peruvians, in hopes of find- ing some indications of the pump in the instruments employed to urge air into their furnaces ; but, strange as it will appear to modern mechanics, they are said to have been wholly ignorant of the bellows. This, if true, is a very singular fact; and, considering the extent to which they practiced the arts of metallurgy, one that is unexampled in the history of the world. It appears, moreover, irreconcilable with the opinion of their oriental origin ; for it is difficult to conceive how emigrants or descendants of emigrants from Asia, could have been ignorant of this simple instrument which has been used in one form or another on that continent from the earliest times, and which is still employed by the rudest tribes there, and also in all those parts whence the early Peruvians are supposed to have come. The bel- lows is common almost as the hammer, from the peninsular of Malacca to that of Kampschatka, and from the Philippine islands to those of Japan. In Africa, too, it is used in great variety and by people whose progress in the arts is far behind that of the ancient smiths of America. How little is known respecting the mechanical implements of Mexican and Peruvian workmen and of their processes, and yet but three centuries have elapsed since the latter were in full operation ! We are not aware that a single tool has been preserved, much less their modes of manufac- ture ; nor is this much to be wondered at when the spirit that animated the conquerors is considered — it was the acquisition of gold, not the tools for or manner of working it, that they had in view ; and had it not been for the prodigious amount of bullion which they found worked into va- rious figures and utensils, we should scarcely have ever heard of the latter; and yet the workmanship on some of them, exceeded the value of the metal. That there are errors in the accounts of early writers on the arts and ap- paratus of old American mechanics is unquestionable, and among them 264 On tfie Bellows among the Peruvians, [Book III, may be mentioned that which confined the materials of their cutting in- struments to obsidian and other stones ; whereas it is now certain that they had chisels, &c. of bronze or alloys of copper and tin ; and probably of a similar composition to those of Egyptian workmen. As for bellows, it was no easy task (supposing it had been undertaken by the old histo- rians of Mexico and Peru) to determine positively that they were unknown throughout those extensive countries. To ascertain what tools were and were not used, required something more than a superficial knowledge of the people. Before a stranger could speak decidedly on the subject of bellows, it was necessary that he should become familiar with their modes of working the metals, by frequently visiting them in their workshops and dwellings; and, from an intimate knowledge of their language, making in quiries respecting the tools and details of the processes adopted by artisans of distant tribes ; for bellows might be used to a limited extent in one country, and (from variety in the ores, articles manufactured or customs of workmen) not at all in another. But there does not appear to have been any efforts made to collect information of this kind by the con- querors— its value was not appreciated by them or by their immediate successors, and hence the opportunity was neglected and could never be recalled ; for other historians agree with Clavigero, that the wonderful arts of the Mexican and Peruvian founders were soon lost, " by the de- basement of the Indians and the indolent neglect of the Spaniards." Even Garcilasso, although a native Indian, by his mother's side, does not seem to have possessed any particular knowledge on the subject of working the metals : he derived his information from Acosta, to whose work he refers his readers. But what are the proofs that bellows were unknown to the subjects of Manco Capec and Motezuma ] The principal one is derived from their fusing metals without them : they kept their furnaces in blast, it is alledged, by the breath of a number of men who blew on the fires through tubes of bamboo. That this was often practiced there is no doubt, and that it was the general custom is admitted ; but it does not therefore follow that they had no contrivances for producing artificial blasts : this will appear from the practice of oriental gold and silver smiths, both of ancient and modern times. The fusion of gold and silver with bio wing tubes is a device of remote antiquity, and like all ancient customs relating to the useful arts, it is still practiced by the Hindoos, Malays, Ceylonese, Persians and other Asiatics ; and also by Egyptians and numerous African tribes. The goldsmiths of Sumatra, Mr. Marsden observes, "in general use no bellows, but blow the fire with their mouths through a joint of bamboo ; and if the quantity of metal to be melted is considerable, three or four persons sit round the fur- nace, which is an old broken kwali, or iron pot, and blow together : at Padang alone, where the manufacture is more considerable, they have adopted the Chinese bellows."* We have already described the single and also a double acting bellows of these people ; besides which they have that of China, and yet it seems that all the working goldsmiths of the coun- try, except those of a single town, still melt their metal as the Mexicans and the Peruvians did : hence the mere fact of the old smiths of these con- tinents using blowpipes to fuse metal, is no more a proof of their igno- rance of bellows, than the like practice is of modern Asiatics being also ignorant of them. Nothing is easier than to err respecting a knowledge of bellows in for- mer times, by inferences drawn from the use of blowpipes. In the oldest a History of Sumatra, 179. Chap. 2.] And Mexicans. 255 monuments of Egypt (those of Beni Hassan) the latter are represented in the remote age of Osirtasen, 1700 B. C. which to a superficial observer 'might lead to the supposition that the former were then unknown; but a close examination of the sculptures shows the fallacy of such a conclusion, since blowing tubes are also figured long after the reign of Thothmes in whose time bellows were certainly common.* Again, on the last day of the feast of Tabernacles, the Jews were allowed by rabbinical precepts to light one fire from another, but not to strike new fire from stone or metal, nor to quench it, although to save their goods, " nor to blow it with bellowes, but with a reede."b Now a stranger, having an imperfect know- ledge of Jewish customs, upon witnessing fires thus blown would, in some parts of the world, be very apt to conclude that they had no bellows. And again, if we had not a proof that our domestic bellows was known to the Romans, we might have inferred from Pliny's account of statuaries and painters representing individuals blowing fires with their mouths, that artifi- cial instruments for the purpose were then unknown. Enough may be gathered from early writers on America to account for bellows not being employed in those operations in which they would seem to have been most required, viz : in smelting of metals. According to Acosta, some ores could no.t be reduced by bellows, but only by air furnaces. Garcilasso, in the last chapter of the eighth book of his Com- mentaries, makes the same remark. In smelting the silver ore of Potosi, he says the Indians used neither bellows nor blowing tubes, but a natural wind, which, in their opinion, was the best ; they therefore fused the ore in small furnaces placed on the hills in the night time, whenever the wind was sufficient for the purpose ; and it was a pleasant sight, he observes, " to behold eight, ten, or twelve thousand of those fires at the same time, ranged in order upon the sides of the mountains." The Spaniards suspect- ing that the metal, when thus diffused among a great number of hands, might be more readily purloined, and that much of it was wasted in so many fires, introduced blast furnaces, the fires in which were urged "by large bellows," but these not succeeding, (the blast being too strong,) they had recourse to rotary bellows, (" engines with wheels, carried about with sails like a windmill which fanned and blowed the fire,") but these also failed to accomplish the purpose, " so that the Spaniards despairing of the success of their inventions, made use of those which the Indians had framed and contrived" No stronger reason could be adduced why the bellows was not previously used in the reduction of ores. At a subsequent fusion of the metal in their dwellings, the workmen (says Garcilasso) instead of bellows, continued to use blowing tubes, " though our [Spanish] invention of bellows is much more easie and forci- ble to raise the fire." Supposing they were ignorant of bellows before the arrival of the Spaniards, here is a proof that after they became acquainted with these instruments, they still preferred their tubes, as the gold and silver smiths of Asia generally do at this day ; and hence the use of such tubes does not show, as has been stated, " that they were unacquainted with the use of bellows." If there was nothing else to adduce in favor of the old Peruvians being acquainted with bellows, or with the principle of their construction and ap- plication, than the balsas or blown floats which their fishermen and those of Chili used instead of boats, we should deem them sufficient. These were large bags made of skins of the sea wolf and filled with air. They a Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, iii. 339. b Purchas' Pilgrimage, 223. 256 Natural Pumps. [Book III. were " so well sewed, that a considerable weight could not force any of it out." They carried from twelve to fourteen hundred pounds, and if any air escaped, there were two leathern pipes through which the fishermen "blow into the bags when there is occasion." Frezier's Voyage to the South Seas, page 121. These were real bellows, only applied to another purpose. Had they not been found less efficient or less economical than blowing tubes, they would doubtless have been used as substitutes for the latter in the fusion and reduction of ores. It may here be noticed as a singular fact, and one which may possibly have reference to bellows, that Quetzalcoatl, the Mexican God of the air or wind, was also the Vulcan of all the nations of Anahuac. Both Mexicans and Peruvians were accustomed from their youth to use blowing tubes, for the primitive air gun, through which to shoot arrows and other missiles by the breath, was universally used, and the practice is still kept up by their descendants. Motezuma, in his first interview with Cortez, shrewdly compared the Spanish guns, as tubes of unknown metal, to the sarbacans of his countrymen. From the expertness acquired by the constant employment of these instruments in killing game, it was natural enough to use them instead of bellows to increase the heat of their furnaces, and custom rendered them very efficient. We have prolonged our remarks on this subject because it has been concluded that remains of furnaces, found far below the surface in various parts of this continent and in regions abounding with iron, could never have been employed in reducing that metal; for in those remote ages in which such furnaces were in action, the bellows, it is said, was unknown; a position that we think untenable, and quite irreconcilable with the advanced state of metallurgy in those times. Before leaving the subject of bellows and bellows pumps, we may re- mark that numerous illustrations of the latter may be found in the natural world. To an industrious investigator, the animal kingdom would furnish an endless variety, for every organized being is composed of tubes and of liquids urged through them. The contrivances by which the latter is accomplished may be considered among the prominent features in the mechanism of animals ; and although modified to infinitude, one general principle pervades the whole ; this is the distension and contraction of flexible vessels or reservoirs in which fluids are accumulated and driven through the system. On the regular function of these organs the neces- sary motions of life chiefly depend ; by them urine is expelled from the bladder, blood from the heart, breath from the lungs, &c. ; they are natural bellows pumps, while other devices of the Divine Mechanician resemble syringes or piston pumps. The whale spouts water with a bellows pump, and in streams compared with which the jet from one of our fire-engines is child's play. His blow- ing apparatus consists of two large membranous sacs ; elastic and capable of being collapsed with great force. They are connected with two bony canals or tubes whose orifices are closed by a valve in the form of two semicircles, similar to those known to pump makers as butterfly valves. When the animal spouts, he forcibly compresses the bags, already filled with water, and sends forth volumes of it to the height of 40 or 50 feet. The roaring noise that accompanies this ejection of the liquid is heard at a considerable distance, and is one of the means by which whalers, in foggy weather, are directed to their prey. The proboscis of the elephant is sometimes used as a hose pipe, through which he plays a stream in every direction by the pump in his chest. Numerous insects that live in water move their bodies by the reaction of that liquid on streams they eject from Chap. 2.] Natural Pumps. 257 their bodies : oysters and some other shell fish move in this manner. My- riads of marine animals also ascend and descend in their native element by means of forcing pumps : when about to dive, they admit water into cer- tain receptacles, and in such quantities as to render their bodies speci- fically heavier than the fluid they float in ; and when they wish to ascend, they pump out the water which carried them down. That expert gunner, the jaculator fish, shoots his prey with pellets or globules of water as from a piston pump. When an insect hovers near or rests on some aquatic plant within five or six feet of him, he shoots from his tubular snout a drop of water, and with so " sure an aim as generally to lay it dead." The habit of ejecting saliva, which some persons ac- quire, is by making a pump of the mouth and a piston of the tongue. Other animals practice the same ; thus the llama of Chili and Peru, when irritated, " ejects its saliva to a considerable distance" — Frezier says ten paces, or thirty feet. The spurting snake of Southern Africa, it is said, ejects its poison into the eyes of those who attack it with unerring aim. The tongue of the lamprey moves backwards and forwards like a piston, and produces that suction which distinguishes this animal and others of the same family. The sting of some insects, that of the bee, for example, is a very complex apparatus, consisting of a lancet with its sheath, to pene- trate the bodies of their enemies; first acting as a trocar and canular, and then as a pump to force poison into the wound — " an awl to bore a hole, [says Paley,] and a syringe to inject the fluid." It perhaps may be supposed from the form of common pumps, that there is little resemblance between them and these natural machines, but it should be remembered that this form is purely arbitrary, (they are, as we have already seen, sometimes made of flexible materials, and alter- nately dilated and collapsed like the chests of animals.) The general custom of making them of hollow cylinders and of inflexible materials, arose from experience having proved that when thus made, they are more durable and less liable to derangement than any others that have yet been devised. The circulation of the blood in man and other animals is effected by apparatus strikingly analogous to sucking and forcing bellows pumps. The heart is one of these — the arteries are its forcing, the veins its suction pipes, and both pump and pipes are furnished with the most perfect valves. By contraction, this wonderful machine forces the blood through the former to the uttermost parts of the system ; and by distension, draws it back through the latter.* They vary in dimensions as in construction. Some are adapted to the bodies of animals so minute as to be impercep- tible to unaided vision, and from these to others of every size up to the huge leviathan of the deep. The aorta of the whale, says Paley, " is larger in the bore than the main pipe of the water- works at London bridge ; and the water roaring in its passage through that pipe, is inferior in impetus and velocity to the blood rushing from the whale's heart." Every human being may be considered as, nay is, a living pump. His body is wholly made up of it, of the tubes belonging to it, and the liquid moved by it — with such additions as are required to communicate the ne- cessary motion and protect it from injury. Health, life itself, every thing, depends upon keeping it in order. If one of its forcing pipes, (an artery,) be severed, we bleed to death ; are any of its sucking tubes (the veins) In the 6th vol. of Machines approved by the French Academy, is the description of ellows part of it a bellows pump, made in imitation of the heart, by M. Bedaut, who named the working it " La Cceur," the heart — of which it was a rude resemblance. 33 258 Advantages of Studying the Mechanism of Animals. [Book III. choked, the parts around them become diseased, like sterile land for want of nourishment ; does the pump itself stop working, we instantly die. The regularity and irregularity of its motions are indicated by the pulse, which has always been adopted as the unerring criterion of health and disease, or as an engineer would say, the number of its strokes per minute, is the proof of its state whether in good or bad working order. The pulse not only indicates incidental disorders in this hydraulic machine, but is a crite- rion of its age, as well as of its constant condition : the movements are strong and uniform in youth, feeble and uncertain in sickness and age, and as the machine wears out and the period of its labor approaches, its strokes at last cease and its vibrations are then silent for ever. What mechanic can contemplate this surprising machine without being electrified with astonishment that it should last so long as it does in some people ! Formed of materials so easily injured, and connected with tubes of the most delicate texture, whose ramifications are too complex to be traced, their numbers too great to be counted, and many of them too mi- nute to be perceived, and the orifices of all furnished with elaborate valves; that such complicated machinery should continue incessantly in motion, sixty, eighty, and a hundred years, not only without our aid, but in spite of obstructions that are daily thrown in its way, is as inexplicable and mys- terious as the power that impels it. Few classes of men are more interested in studying natural history, and particularly the structure, habits, and movements of animals, than mechan- ics ; and none can reap a richer reward for the time and labor expended upon it. It presents to the studious inquirer sources of mechanical com- binations and movements so varied, so perfect, so novel, and such as are adapted to every possible contingency, as to excite emotions of surprise that they should have been so long neglected. There is no doubt that several modern discoveries in pneumatics, hydraulics, hydrostatics, optics, mechanics, and even of chemistry, might have been anticipated by the study of this department of science. Of this truth examples might be ad- duced from every art, and from every branch of engineering : the flexible water-mains (composed of iron tubes united by a species of ball and socket joint) by which Watt conveyed fresh water under the river Clyde were suggested by the mechanism of a lobster's tail — the process of tunneling by which Brunei has formed a passage under the Thames occurred to him by witnessing the operations of the Teredo, a testaceous worm covered with a cylindrical shell, whicli eats its way through the hardest wood — and Smeaton, in seeking the form best adapted to impart stability to the light-house on the Eddystone rocks, imitated the contour of the bole of a tree. The fishermen's boats of Europe, adapted to endure the roughest weather, are the very model of those formed for her progeny by the fe- male gnat ; " elevated and narrow at each end, and broad and depressed at the middle" — the beaver when building a dam — but it is vain to quote examples with which volumes might be filled. Chap. 3.] Forcing Pumps with solid Pistons. 259 CHAPTER III. Forcing Pumps with solid pistons: The Syringe: Its uses, materials and antiquity — Employed by the Hindoos in religious festivals— Figured on an old coat of arms— Simple Garden Pump— Single valve Forc- ing-pump— Common Forcing-pump — Stomach pump — Forcing-pump with air-vessel — Machine of Ctesibius: Its description by Vitruvius— Remarks on its origin— Errors of the ancients respecting the authors of several inventions— Claims of Ctesibius to the pump limited— Air vessel probably invented by him — Compressed uir a prominent feature in all his inventions — Air vessels — In Heron's fountain — Ap- parently referred to by Pliny — Air gun of Ctesibius — The Hookah. THE earliest machine consisting of a cylinder and piston that was ex- pressly designed to force liquids was probably the syringe, an instrument of very high antiquity : see its figure in the foreground of the next illustra- tion. To the closed end a short conical pipe is attached whose dimensions are adapted to the particular purpose for which the instrument is to be used. The piston is solid and covered with a piece of soft leather, hemp, woollen listing, or any similar substance that readily imbibes moisture, in order to prevent air or water from passing between it and the sides of the cylinder. When the end of the pipe is placed in a liquid and the piston drawn back, the atmosphere drives the liquid into the cylinder; whence it is expelled through the same orifice by pushing the piston down : in the former case the syringe acts as a sucking pump ; in the latter as a forcing one. They are chiefly employed in surgical operations, for which thev are made of various dimensions — from the size of a quart bottle to that of a quill. They are formed of silver, brass, pewter, glass, and sometimes of wood. For some purposes the small pipe is dispensed with, the end of the cylinder being closed by a perforated plate, as in those instruments with which gardeners syringe their plants. It has been said that the syringe was invented by Ctesibius, being the result of his first essays in devising or improving the pump ; but such could not have been its origin, since it is mentioned by philosophers who flourished centuries before him. It was known to Theophrastus, Anaxa- goras, Democritus, Leucippus, Aristotle, and their pupils : to the rushing of water into it when the piston was drawn up, these philosophers ap- pealed to illustrate their opposite views respecting the cause of the liquid's ascent, some contending that it proved the existence of a vacuum, others that it did not. To this ancient application of the syringe, most of the early writers on atmospheric pressure allude.a " It is pretty strange [ob- serves Desaguliers] that the ancients, who were no strangers to the nature of winds, and knew a great deal of their force, were yet entirely ignorant of the weight and perpendicular pressure of the air. This is evident, be- cause they attribute the cause of water rising up in pumps, or any liquors being drawn up into syringes (commonly called syphons on that account, while pumps were call'd sucking-pumps) to nature's abhorrence of a va- cuum ; saying, that it fill'd up with water the pipes of pumps under the moving bucket or piston, rather than suffer any empty space. The syringe was in use, and this notion concerning its suction obtain'd long before Ctesibius, the son of a barber at Alexandria, invented the pump."b * See Renault's Philosophy with Clarke's Notes. Lon. 1723; vol. i. 172. Switzer's Hydrostatics, Preface and 172. Chambers' Diet. Articles Syringe, Embolus, Vacuum. b Ex. Philos. vol. ii, 249. SCO The Syringe, [Book III. There is reason to believe that the syringe was employed by the Egyp- tians in the process of embalming. In various translations of the account, given by Herodotus (Euterpe, 87) it is expressly named: "They fill a syringe with germe of cedar wood and inject it."a Dr. Rees, in his edi- tion of Chambers' Dictionary, (Art. Embalming,) uses the terms " infusing by a syringe," and " syringing a liquid," &c. The least expensive mode of embalming was "infusing by a syringe a certain liquid extracted from the cedar."b Beloe, in his translation, does not indicate the instrument usej — they " inject an unguent made from the cedar." As clysters origi- nated in Egypt, and were used monthly by the inhabitants as a preserva- tive of health, (Herod, ii, 77,) we are most probably indebted to the people of that country for the syringe. Had it been a Grecian or Roman inven- tion, the name of its author would have been known, for from its utility and application to various useful purposes, an account of the .circumstances connected with its origin was as worthy of preservation, as those relating to the pump or any other machine. Suetonius uses the term " clyster" to denote the instrument by which it was administered ; and Celsus by it, refers to "a little pipe or squirt." (Ainsworth.) Hippocrates and the elder Pliny frequently mention clysters, but without describing distinctly the instrument employed : the latter in his 30th book, cap. 7, seems to refer to the common pewter syringe, " an instrument or pipe of tin ;" this is at least probable, for pewter, according to Whittaker, was borrowed from the Romans. It is well ascertained that pewterers were among the earliest workers of metal in England. A company of them was incorporated in 1474 ; but at what time the syringe became a staple article of their ma- nufacture is uncertain. No. 115. Syringes used by Hindoos in celebrating some religious festivals. Had the syringe not been mentioned by ancient authors, its antiquity might be inferred from a particular employment of it by the Hindoos. The arts, manners and customs of these people have remained unchanged from very remote times ; and such is their predilection for the religious insti- tutions of their ancestors, that nothing has, and apparently nothing can in- duce them to admit of the slightest change in the ceremonies that pertain to the worship of their deities : hence the same rites are still performed, a Quoted in Ogilby's Africa. Newcastle : vol. i. 602. Lon. 1670, p. 81. b Historical Description of Egypt Chap. 3.] And its Applications. 261 and by means of the same kind of instruments as when Alexander or even Bacchus invaded India. In some of their religious festivals the syringe is made to perform a prominent part ; for a red powder is mixed with water, with which the worshipers " drench one another by means of a species of squirt ; to represent Parasou Rama, or some other hero returning from battle covered with blood." Some writers suppose the ceremony is designed to celebrate " the orgies of Krishna with his mis- tresses and companions." No. 115 represents a rajah and some of his wives engaged in this singular species of religious worship and connubial exercise, in honor of Krishna. The instruments are clearly garden syringes, and probably of the same kind as are mentioned by Heron of Alexandria, as used in his time for sprinkling and dispersing water. The Hohlee is another Hindoo festival which resembles in some mea sure the Saturnalia of the .Romans. It is observed through all Hindostan, and in celebrating it, the syringe is put in requisition. "Mr. Broughton, who, with some other Europeans, visited a Mahratta rajah to witness the ceremony, observes — " A few minutes after we had taken our seats, large brass trays filled with abeer, and the little balls already described were brought in and placed before the company, together with a yellow-coloured water, and a large silver squirt for each individual. The Muha Raj him- self began the amusements of the day, by sprinkling a little red and yellow water upon us from the goolabdans, small silver vessels kept for the pur- pose of sprinkling rose-water at visits of ceremony. Every one then began to throw about the abeer, and to squirt at his neighbour as he pleas- ed." (Shoberl's Hind. vol. ii, 241, and vol. vi, 14.) A somewhat similar custom prevails in Pegu. At the feast of waters, the king, nobles, and all the people sport themselves by throwing water upon one another ; and " it is impossible to pass the streets without being soundly wet." (Oving- ton's Voyage to Surat in the year 1689. Lon. 1696 : page 597.) The syringe in front of No. 115, is copied from Rivius' German Trans- lation of Vitruvius, A. D. 1548. It is from a view of the barber's shop belonging to the father of Ctesibius. (See pp. 121 and 122 of this volume.) Across the shop is a partition, behind which the young philosopher is seen intently perusing a book, and on the floor around him are a flute, a syringe, a pair of bellows, bagpipes, &c. ; while in front, the old gentleman in the European costume of the 16th century, and with a sword at his side ! is actively engaged in purifying the head and face of a customer. In the third volume of a Collection of "Emblems, Human and Divine" in Latin : Prague, 1601, page 76, a pair of bellows, a syringe, and a flying eolipile are represented as forming the device of some old Italian family, with the singular motto, " Todo est viento" Few ancient devices could be pointed out that have given rise to more important improvements in the arts than the primitive syringe. Its modi- fications exert an extensive and beneficial influence in society. As a pis- ton bellows it is still extensively used in oriental smitheries — and as the same, it contributed to one of the most refined pleasures of the ancients, by supplying wind to their organs. It may be considered as the immediate parent of the forcing if not of the atmospheric pump — in both of which it has greatly increased the comforts and conveniencies of civilized life ; in the fire-engine it protects both our lives and our property from the most destructive of the elements ; and in the hands of the surgeon and physician it extends the duration of life by removing disease. The mo- dern philosophical apparatus for exhausting air, and the ancient one for condensing it; the mammoth blowing machines in our founderies, and the-steam engine itself, are all modifications of the syringe. 262 Single- Valve Forcing Pumps. [Book III. A forcing pump differs but little from a syringe : the latter receives and expels a liquid through the same passage, but the -former has a separate pipe for its discharge, and both the receiving and discharging orifices are covered with valves. By this arrangement it is not necessary to remove a pump from the liquid to transfer the contents of its cylinder, as is done with the syringe, but the operation of forcing up water may be continuous while the instrument is immoveable. A forcing pump, therefore, is merely a syringe furnished with an induction and eduction valve — one through which water enters the cylinder, the other by which it escapes from it. Of the process or reasoning which led to the application of valves to the syringe, history is silent ; but as has been remarked in a previous chap- ter, their employment in bellows or air forcing machines, probably opened the way to their introduction into water forcing ones. The ordinary bel- lows has but one valve, and the simplest and most ancient forcing pumps have no more. One of these is shown at No. 116. It represents a syringe having the orifice at the bottom of the cylinder covered by a valve or clack, opening upwards ; and a discharging pipe connected to the cylinder a little above it : when placed in water the orifice of this pipe is closed with the finger, and the piston being then drawn up, the cylinder becomes charged, and when the piston is pushed down the valve closes and the liquid is forced through the pipe. In this machine the finger performs the part of a valve by preventing air from entering the cylinder when the piston is being raised. Such pumps made of tin plate were for- merly common, and were used to wash windows, syringe plants and garden trees, &c. The figure is from plate 57 of " L'Exploiter des Mines," in ARTS ET METIERS, and is described (page 1584) as a Dutch pump, " pour envoyer commodement de 1'eau dans les differents quartiers de 1'attelier." No. 117 is another single-valve forcing pump from the second volume of a Latin treatise on Natural Philosophy, by P. P. Steinmeyer, Friburgh, 1767. It is secured in a cistern, the surface of the water in which is al- ways kept above the small openings made through the upper part ; so that when the piston is drawn up, as in the figure, the liquid flows in and fills it ; and on the descent of the piston the water is forced up the as- cending pipe, the valve preventing its return. This is a very simple and efficient forcing pump ; and having no induction valve and the piston being always under water, it is not very liable to derangement. It has, however, its defects ; for in elevating the piston the whole weight of the atmosphere above it has to be overcome, a disadvantage that in large ma- chines would not be compensated by the saving of a valve. As the piston has to pass the holes in the upper part of the cylinder, its packing would be injured if their inner edges were not rounded off. This pump has been erroneously attributed to a modern European engineer : see the London Register of Arts, v, 154, and Journal of the Franklin Institute, viii, 379. No. 116. No. 117. Single-Valve Forcing Pumps. Chap. 3. Common Forcing Pump. 263 No. 118. Common Forcing Pump. The ordinary forcing pump has two valves, as in the annexed figure, which represents it as generally made. The cylinder is placed above the surface of the water to be raised, and consequently is charged by the pres- sure of the atmosphere ; the machine, therefore, is a compound one, dif- fering from that last described, which is purely a forcing pump, the water en- tering its cylinder by gravity alone. The action of the machine now under consideration is similar to that of the syringe : when the piston is raised the air in the pipe below the cylinder rushes through the valve and is expelled on the descent of the piston through the other valve in the ascending or dis- charging pipe ; and on a repetition of the strokes of the piston, water rises in the suction pipe, enters the cylinder, and is expelled in the like manner. Pumps of this kind are sometimes placed in the yards of dwelling houses, the suction pipe extending into a well, and the ascending one to a cistern in the upper parts of the building. In these cases a cock is generally inserted a lit- tle above the valve in the ascending pipe to supply water if required in the vicinity of the pump. The beautiful instrument used of late years to transfer liquids into and from the human stomach is a modification of the above machine. It cannot with propriety be named a syringe, for as it is furnished with valves, it is, in every respect, a pump. Having been employed with much success in withdrawing poison from the stomach, it is now justly classed among the essential apparatus of the surgeon. Its origin and history are detailed in a pamphlet published by its inventor, Mr. John Read, of England, who devised it in 1819, and in the following year obtained a patent for it under the name of a "Stomach and Enema Pump." After visiting London twice in vain for the purpose of procuring suitable tubes, he tried to get some made in the country, but failed. On a third visit to the metropolis he obtained an indifferent one which he thought might answer, and after adapting it to a pump, " I then [he observes] presented it to Sir Astley Cooper, who asked me for what purpose it was intended ; I told him it was intended for the removal of fluid poisons from the human stomach ; after a few minutes inspection of the instrument, Sir A. made the follow- ing reply : — ' about three weeks ago I was called to attend a young lady about 10 o'clock in the morning who had taken opium ; I gave her sul- phate of copper, sulphate of zinc and other things : I sat by her until eight in the evening, when she died ! If I had been in possession of this instrument at the time, I could have relieved her in five minutes, and have saved her life.' After many questions how I came to think of such a thing, which I satisfactorily explained, he said ' what can I do for you V my answer was — the publicity of your opinion is all I wish : he replied, ' that you shall soon have ;' and he ordered me to meet him the next day at Guy's Hospital at one o'clock, when he proposed to try an experiment on a dog ; but as no dog could be procured, [that day,] Sir Astley pro- posed Friday at the same hour ; when I attended as before, and a dog 264 Stomach Pumps. [Book III. was then ready for the experiment in the operating theatre, which was crowded to excess. The dog was brought to Sir A. who gave him four drachms of opium dissolved in water. The dog's pulse was first at 120 ; in seven minutes it fell to 110, and from that to 90. The poison was suf- fered to remain in the dog's stomach 33 minutes, till he appeared to be dead, and I was doubtful it would be the case before Sir A. would let me use the pump. I must confess I was very impatient to be at work on the dog with my instrument in hand ready for action. Sir A. kept his finger on the dog's pulse, then at 90, and said very deliberately, * I think it will do now, as it is 33 minutes since I gave him the dose.' A basin of warm water being then brought, Sir A. passed the tube I had provided into the dog's stomach : I immediately pumped the whole contents of the basin [the warm water] into the stomach, and as quickly repumped the whole from the stomach, containing the laudanum, back again into the basin. Sir A. observed, while I was emptying the dog's stomach, the laudanum swim- ming on the surface, and said ' It will do ;' a second basin of water was then injected and withdrawn by the pump as before : I asked for a third, but Sir Astley said it was unnecessary, as the laudanum had all been re- turned in the first basin." In half an hour the animal was completely re- vived and running about the theatre. It may be of use "to state, that the quickest and easiest mode of employ- ing a stomach pump (according to the inventor) is to use it only as a forc- ing pump — that is to inject warm water or other dilutents into the stomach until that organ becoming surcharged, the fluid regurgitates by the mouth ; in other words to fill the stomach to overflowing — the liquid passing down the tube and rising through the oesophagus by the side of it ; the opera- tion being continued till the fluid returns unchanged. In the absence of a pump, a tunnel or other vessel attached to a flexible tube might answer. No. 119. Stomach Pump. There are numerous varieties in stomach pumps, arising from the dif- ferent modes of constructing and arranging the valves, so as either to in- ject or withdraw liquids through the same tube without shifting the appa- ratus. No. 119 represents one that is described in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, (vol. xiii, 223.) It consists of an ordinary syringe screwed to a cylindrical valve box which contains two egg-shaped cavi- ties. In each cavity is a small and loose spherical valve that fits either of the orifices. Two flexible tubes are attached to each cavity as represented. Suppose the upper tube inserted into a person's stomach and the lower one into a basin of warm water ; if the syringe were then worked, the liquid would be forced into the stomach and the poison diluted : then by turning the instrument in the hand so as to bring the upper tube down, (without withdrawing the one in the stomach,) the valves would drop upon the other orifices in each cavity, and the syringe would raise the contents of the stomach into the basin, as represented in the figure. Chap. 3.] Forcing Pump with, Air Vessel. 265 We have no idea that the inventor of the stomach pump was indebted to Hudibras for the hint, yet that old warrior seems not only to have been a proper subject for its occasional application, but he appears to have had some notions that might eventually have led to it. Those readers who are familiar with Butler's account of him will remember that when he was insulted by Talgol the butcher, the knight, as he justly might, " grew high in wroth, And lifting hands and eyes up both, Three times he smote on stomach stout From whence at last these words broke out : ******* Nor all lhat farce that makes thee proud, Because by bullocks ne'er withstood, Shall save, or help thee to evade The hand of justice, or this blade. Nor shall those words of venom base, Which thou hast from their native place Thy stomach, pumped to fling on me Go unreveuged : * * * * Thou down the same throat shall devour 'em, Like tainted beef, and pay dear for "em." — Canto n, Part I. It was a common practice with the ancient Roman epicures to empty the stomach by an emetic before dinner. Had the application of the pump for such a purpose been then known, it would of course have been pre- ferred as the more agreeable and certain device of the two. But if the ancients had no apparatus for withdrawing the contents of the stomach, they were not destitute of means for conveying nauseous or corroding liquids into it. Pliny, in his Nat. Hist, xxx, 6. says such medicines were swallowed " through a pipe or tunnel" inserted into the mouth for that purpose. The pump figured at No. 118 ejects water as a syringe and only when the piston is forced down ; but by the addition of what is called an air-vessel, the stream from the discharg- ing pipe may be made con- tinuous: this vessel is clos- ed at its upper part, and open at bottom, where it is connected by screws to the forcing pipe directly over the valve, as represented in the annexed illustration. A discharging pipe may then be connected to the lower part of the vessel, or it may be, as it often is, inserted through the top, in which case its lower end should extend nearly to the bottom. When by the descent of the piston water is forced out No. 120. Forcing Pump with Air-vessel. of ^--cylinder, part of it enters the pipe, and part rushes past it and compresses the air confined in the upper part of the vessel ; and when the piston is raised to draw a fresh portion into the cylinder, this air expands and drives out the water that compressed it and thus renders the stream constant. It will be per- ceived that the quantity of water raised is not increased by this arrange- 34 266 Description of the Machine of Ctesibius by Vitruvius. [Book III. ment; its flow from the discharging orifice being merely rendered uniform, or nearly so. In the ordinary use of forcing pumps a constant instead of an inter- rupted flow of water from the discharging orifice, may be a matter of no importance ; but when those of large dimensions are required to raise it to great elevations, air vessels are not only valuable but indispensable adjuncts ; for the elastic fluid within them forms a medium for gradually overcoming the inertia of the ascending liquid columns, and thereby pre- vents those jars and shocks which are incident to all non-elastic substances in rapid motion, when brought suddenly to a state of rest. A column of water moving with great velocity through a pump, produces, when in- stantly stopt, a concussion like that of a solid rod of the same length, when its end is driven against an unyielding object; but with an air-vessel, the effect is like that of the same rod when brought in contact with a bale of cotton or caoutchouc. Less force is required also to work pumps that have air-vessels, because in them the column of water in the discharging pipe is continued in motion during the ascent of the piston, hence it has not to be moved from a state of rest on the piston's return. When two or more cylinders are connected to one discharging pipe, one air-vessel only is required, as in fire-engines, water- works, &c. It is this kind of forcing pump that is generally adopted in water-works for the supply of towns and cities ; the piston rods being moved by cranks or levers attached to water wheels : sometimes they are driven by windmills, steam-engines, and by animals. The cylinders are commonly used perpendicularly as in the figure, but they are sometimes worked in an inclined and also in a horizontal position. The celebrated pump of Ctesibius was constructed like that represented in the last figure, except that it had two cylinders. It seems to have been almost identical in its construction with our fire-engines. " It remains now [says Vitruvius] to describe the machine of Ctesibius which raises water very high. This is made of brass ; at the bottom a pair of buckets [cylin- ders] are placed at a little distance, having pipes like the shape of a fork annexed, meeting in a basin in the middle. At the upper holes of the pipes within the basin, are made valves, hinged with very exact joints ; which, stopping the holes, prevent the efflux of the water that will be pressed into the basin by the air. Upon the basin a cover like an inverted funnel is fitted, which is adjoined and fastened to the basin by a collar, riveted through, that the pressure of the water may not force it off : and on the top of it, a pipe called the tuba, is affixed perpendicularly. The buckets [cylinders] have valves placed below the lower mouths of the pipes, and fixed over holes that are in their bottoms : then pistons turned very smooth and anointed with oil, being inclosed in the buckets [cylin- ders] are worked with bars and levers from above ; the repeated motion of these, up and down, pressing the air that is therein contained with the water, the holes being shut by the valves, forces and extrudes the water through the mouths of the pipes into the basin ; from whence rising to the cover, the air presses it upwards through the pipe ; and thus from the low situation of the reservoir, raises it to supply the public fountains." Book x, cap. 12. Newton's Trans. The machine as thus described is a proof of the progress which the an- cients had made in hydraulics : the "whole appears to have been of the most durable materials, and of the best workmanship. Although the figures of this and other machines which Vitruvius inserted in his work are lost, there is little difficulty in realizing its construction from the text. Transla- Chap. 3.] Machine of Ctesibius. 267 tors and commentators have generally agreed in their views of it as re- presented below, viz : two ordinary forcing pumps connected to an air- vessel and one discharging pipe. No. 121. Machine of Ctesibius. The cylinders are secured in a frame of timber, and the piston rods are attached by joints to levers, one end of which are depressed by cams on the axis of the wheel, as shown above and also at No. 89. Barbaro has figured a crank at the axis which gives a reciprocating motion to a hori- zontal shaft placed over the pumps, and projecting pieces from which impart motion to the piston rods. Vitruvius informs us that when machines were employed to raise water from rivers, they were worked by undershot wheels impelled by the stream, and hence the pumps of Ctesibius were believed to have been moved by the same means. But for Vitruvius we should not have known that forcing pumps con- stituted part of the water works of antiquity ; and had he not remarked that they were employed to supply " public fountains," it might have been supposed that water never rose higher in the dwellings of ancient cities than that which was drawn directly from the aqueducts. It would be almost unpardonable to pass over this celebrated machine without further remark, since it is, in several respects, one of the most interesting of all antiquity. An account of its origin and early history would form a commentary on most of the arts and sciences of the ancients, and would, we believe, furnish evidence of their progress in some of them that few are willing to believe. Although it was attributed to Ctesibius, there is some uncertainty respecting the extent of his claims. It may ap- pear invidious to attempt to rob this illustrious man of inventions ascribed to him, but our object is to ascertain, not to depreciate them or diminish 268 Claims of Ctesibius, [Book III. their number. It has frequently been remarked that little dependence can be placed on ancient writers as regards the authors of the useful ma- chines. Generally those who introduced them from abroad, who im- proved them, increased their effects, or extended their application, were reputed their inventors. This has been the case more or less in every part of the world, and is so at the present day. The Greeks found au- thors among themselves for almost every machine, although most of them were certainly derived from Egypt. Thus, the sails and masts of ships, the wedge, auger, axe and level, were known before Daedalus. The saw, drill, compasses, glue and dovetailing, before Talus. Cast iron was employed, and moulding practiced, and the lathe invented, long before Theodorus of Samos lived; and the screw and the crane before Archytas. The last individual was celebrated for various inventions, and among others, Aristotle mentions the child's rattle, from which it may be infer- red that he was an amiable man and fond of children — but Egyptian children were amused with various species of toys, centuries before he flourished ; and they then had dolls whose limbs were moved by the pulling of strings or wires, as ours have at this day. Wilkinson's Man- ners and Customs of the Ancient Eygptians. Vol. ii, 426-7. As regards machines for raising water, we have already seen, that some have been ascribed to others than their authors. Even the siphon has been attributed to Ctesibius, (Adams's Lectures, vol. iii, 372,) because it was found in the construction of his clepsydra, and no earlier application of it was then known ; but it is now ascertained to have been in common use among his countrymen in the remote age of Rameses — in the Augustan era of Egypt, when the arts, we are informed, " attained a degree of per- fection, which no after age succeeded in imitating." Had the " Commenta- ries of Ctesibius" to which Vitruvius referred his readers for further infor- mation, been preserved, we should have had no occasion to attempt a defi- nition of his claims to the forcing pump ; unfortunately, however, these and Archimedes' Treatise on Pneumatic and Hydrostatic Engines have perished, and have left us in comparative ignorance of -the history of such machines among the ancients. We have already seen that the syringe was in common use ages before Ctesibius, and that it was employed by philosophers to illustrate their hy- pothesis of water rushing into a vacuum. Now a forcing pump is merely a syringe with an additional orifice for the liquid's discharge, and having both its receiving and discharging orifices covered by valves or clacks. Cte- sibius therefore did not invent the piston and cylinder, nor was he the first to discover the application of these to force water, for they were in pre- vious use and for that purpose. Was he the inventor of valves 1 No, for they were usedin the Egyptian bellows thirteen or fourteen hundred years before he lived, and appear always to have been an essential part of those instruments. They were employed in clepsydra ; and were most likely used in the hydraulic organ of Archimedes, which Tertullian has des- cribed. Is the arrangement of the valves, by which water is admitted through one and expelled by the other, to be ascribed to him ] We believe not, for the same arrangement was previously adopted in the bellows, so far as regards the application of one of them, and the principle of both : and if it could be shown that the Chinese bellows was then in use, as we suppose it was, and possibly known in Egypt, (for that some intercourse did take place in ancient times betwen Egypt and China, even if one peo- ple be not a colony of the other, is proved by Chinese bottles and inscrip- tions found in the tombs at Thebes,) then the merit of Ctesibius would seem to be confined principally to the construction of metallic bellows as Chap. 3.] To the invention of the Pump limited. 269 " water forcers," or, to the application of valves to the ordinary syringe, by which it was converted into a forcing pump, either for air or water. But it is not certain that the last was not done before, for neither Vitruvius nor Pliny asserts that " water forcers" were not in previous use. The former says he applied the principle of " compressed air" to them, in common with " hydraulic organs," " automatons," " lever and turning machines," and " water dials," (Book ix, cap. 9;) hence it may as well be concluded from this passage, that he invented these as the pump. It is, indeed, almost impossible to believe that the Egyptians, of whose sagacity and ingenuity, unrivalled monuments have come down, did not detect the application both of the bellows and syringe to raise water long before Ctesibius lived ; hence we are inclined to place the forcing pump in its simplest form, with the syringe and atmospheric pump, among the works — " Of names once famed, now dubious or forgot And buried 'midst the wreck of things that were.'' That the forcing pump was greatly improved by Ctesibius, there can be no question ; but that which gave celebrity to his machine was proba- bly the air-vessel, an addition, which though not very clearly described by Vitruvius, appears to have originated with him. By it the pump instead of acting as before like a squirt or syringe produced a continuous stream as in a. jet d'eau, a result well adapted to excite admiration, and to give eclat to his name. The whole account of his machine shows its connec- tion with and dependence upon air; whereas had it been simply a forcing pump it would have had nothing to do with it : it would have raised water independently of it ; and without an air-vessel Vitruvius never could have asserted that it forced water up the discharging tube by means of " air pressing it upwards." Compressed air acted a prominent part in all his machines. In his wind guns, water clocks, and numerous automata ; some of the latter in the shape of birds, &c. appeared to sing, others " sounded trumpets," and these results are said to have been produced with " fluids compressed by the force of air." We may add that he compressed air in his hydraulic organs and precisely in the same manner as in the pump, viz : by water, and by either air or water forcing pumps. The commence- ment of his discoveries was the experiment on air with the weight and speculum in his father's shop, (see page 122) in which the descending weight " compressed the inclosed air" and forced it through the several apertures into the open air, and thereby produced distinct sounds. " When therefore Ctesibius observed that sounds were produced from the com- pression and concussion of air, he first made use of that principle in con- triving hydraulic organs, also water forcers, automatons," &c. What principle was this which Vitruvius says he applied to water forcers in common with organs, &c. 1 That of compressed air, as we understand it ; and the employment of which is so evident, in the description of his machine already given. Does any one doubt that the air-vessel was known to, and used by Ctesibius '( Let him recollect that Heron, his disciple and intimate friend, has also described it ; for the celebrated fountain of this philosopher, which still bears his name, and remains just as he left it, is simply an air-chamber, in which the fluid is compressed by a column of water in- stead of a pump ; and one of his machines for raising water by steam, was another, in which the elasticity of that fluid was used in a similar manner. Besides these, there are others represented in the Spiritalia; indeed, a great portion of the figures in that work are modifications of air cham- bers. At pages 42 and 118, of Commandine's Translation, are shown 270 Air Chamber [Book III. spherical vessels containing water, into which perpendicular discharging tubes descend : to expel the liquid, syringes or minute pumps are adapted to the vessels, for the purpose of injecting air or water, and by that means to produce jets d'eau. The common syringe is also figured at large and in section, p. 120.a Pliny also seems to refer to air-vessels in his xix book, cap. 4, where he speaks of water forced up " by pumps and such like, going with the strength of wind enclosed" Holland's Trans. As the ancients have not particularized the claims of Ctesibius to the pump, it is impossible to define them with precision at this distance of time. Perhaps the instrument had been laid aside, or the knowledge of it almost lost when he revived and improved it, as some of his own inventions have been in modern times — his gun, for example, of which Philo of Byzan- tium has given a description, and which " was constructed in such a man- ner as to carry stones with great rapidity to the greatest distance."1* Its invention has been claimed by the Germans, the French, Dutch, and from the following remark of Blainville, by the Swiss also: speaking of Basil, he observes, " They make a great noise here about a hellish invention of a gunsmith, who invented wind guns and pistols. This invention may be truly called diabolical, and the use of it ought to be forbid on pain of death."6 Now if the modern inventor of the air gun, an instrument which, two centuries ago, was spoken of as " a late invention, "d cannot with cer- tainty be ascertained, it can hardly be expected that the specific claims of Ctesibius to the pump can be pointed out after a lapse of 2000 years. If he was the first to combine two or more cylinders to one discharging pipe — to form them of metal, as well as the valves and pistons — and the first to invent and apply air-vessels, his claims are great indeed, and for aught that is known to the contrary he is entitled to them all. His merits as respects the latter will be apparent, if we call to mind the fact that their application to pumps has not been known in Europe for two centuries ; and that their introduction was in all probability derived from him, for it was not till a hundred years after Vitruvius's description of his machine had been translated, printed and circulated, that we first hear of air-vessels in modern times. We may here remark that at whatever period tobacco was first smoked in the Hookah, (and according to some authors, this weed was used in Asia before the discovery of America,) the air-vessel was known; for that instrument is a perfect one, as any person may prove by the following experiment : let a smoker, instead of sucking at the end of the tube which he inserts in his mouth, blow through it, and the liquid contents of the hookah will be forced out through the perpendicular tube on which the weed is placed as in a miniature fire-engine, carrying up with it the pellet of tobacco, somewhat in the manner of those light-balls which are some- times placed on jets d'eau, or the boy's pea playing on a pipe stem. An operation, in the opinion of some physicians, more beneficial to the per- former than the ordinary one, and disposing of the scented material in a manner more suited to its value. * Heronis Alexandrini Spiritalium liber. A Federico Commandino urbinate, ex Grseco nuper in Latinum conversus. 1583. b Duten's Inquiry into the Origin of the Arts attributed to the Moderns, p. 186. Travels, i, 388. d Wilkins' Mat. Magic. Chap. 4.] Double acting Pump. 271 CHAP T E R IV. FORCING pumps continued : La Hire's double acting pump — Plunger pump : Invented by Moreland ; the most valuable of modern improvements on the pump — Application of it to other purposes than rais- ing water — Frictionless plunger pump — Quicksilver pumps — Application of the principle of Bramah's press by bees in forcing honey into their cells. Forcing pumps with hollow pistons : Employed in French water-works — Specimen from the works at Notre Dame — Lifting pump from Agricola — Modern lifting pumps — Extract from an old pump-maker's circular — Lifting pumps with two pistons — Combination of hollow and solid pistons — Trevethick's pump — Perkins' pump. OF the various modifications which the forcing pump has undergone in recent times we can notice but a few, and of these the greater part were most likely known to ancient engineers. The most prominent one is that by which the machine is made double acting. Now the device by which this is effected has not only frequently occurred to quite a number of ingenious men in their endeavours to improve the pump who were ig- norant of its having been accomplished ; but it is an exact copy of one that has been applied to the wind pump of China from time immemorial, (see No. 112 ;) it probably therefore did not escape such men as Ctcsibius, and Heron, and others who appear to have exercised their ingenuity and sagacity to the utmost in order to improve this machine, and who were enthusiastically attached to such researches. The remarks on modern improvements of the atmospheric pump, pages 225—6, are equally applica- ble to those of the forcing one ; and it is worthy of remark, that notwith- standing the present improved state of mechanical science, the ancient forms of both now prevail — for the forcing pump as made by Ctesibius in Egypt, and as described by Vitruvius as used by the Romans, is still more common than any other. The double acting pump represented in the figure, was devised by M. La Hire in the early part of the last century. His description of it was published in the Memoirs of the French Academy in 1716; and from one of his expressions we perceive (what was in- deed very natural) that if he was not indebted for the improvement to the contemplation of bellows, these instruments were at least close- ly associated with it in his mind. The pump 1 propose [he observes] furnishes water con- tinually, "just as the double bellows makes a continual wind." The piston rod passes through a stuffing box or collar of leathers on the top of the cylinder. The latter has four openings covered by valves or clacks ; two for the admission of water and the same num- ber for its discharge. A B is the suction pipe, and C D the ascending or discharging one. Suppose the lower end of the suction pipe in water; then if the piston be thrust down, the valve near B will close, and the air in the lower part of the cylinder will be forced through the valve at D and up the pipe D C, and in consequence of the rarefaction of the air above the piston, the valve at C will be Double Acting Pump. 272 Plunger Pump, [Book III, closed, and water will ascend through B A and enter the cylinder at A ; then if the piston be raised it will force all the water above it through the valve at C, the only passage for it, while at the same time a fresh portion will enter the cylinder through the valve at B. Thus at every stroke of the piston, whether up or down, the contents of the cylinder are forced out at one end, and it is replenished at the same time through the other ; this pump therefore discharges double the quantity of water that an ordi- nary one of the same dimensions does. The piston rod may be inserted through either end of the cylinder, as circumstances may require. These pumps are frequently used in a horizontal position. Another variation of the forcing pump consists in making the piston of the same length as the cylinder but rather less in diameter, so that it may be moved freely in the former without touching the sides. These pistons are made wholly of metal and turned smooth and cylindrical, so as to work through a stuffing box or cupped leathers. The quantity of "water raised at each stroke has therefore no reference to the capacity of the cylinder, however large that part of one of these pumps may be, for the liquid displaced by the piston can only be equal to that part of the latter that enters the cylinder. Switzer has given a figure and description of an old engine composed of three of these pumps " that has been some years erected in the county of Surrey." Newton has figured the piston bellows described by Vitruvius as furnishing wind to hydraulic organs in a similar way. In Commandine's translation of Heron's Spiritalia, page 159, the same kind of plunger is figured in a pump belonging to a water organ ; and at p. 71, a fire-engine, with two working cylinders, has pistons of the same kind. These pistons were formerly named plungers, and the pumps plunger-pumps. Their construction and action will be understood by the figure, which represents one of a number that were em- ployed in the water-works, York Buildings, London, in the last century. The piston was of brass, cast hollow and filled with lead, the outside being " turned true and smooth." A short rod attached to the upper end of the piston was connected by a chain to the arched end of a vibrating beam, that was moved by one of Newcomen's engines. The piston was therefore mere- ly raised by the engine, while its own weight carried it down : to render it sufficiently heavy for this pur- pose, a number of leaden disks (or cheeses, as they were named from their form) having holes in their centres, were slipped over the rod and rested upon the piston, as in the figure. These were increased until they were found sufficient to press down the piston and force the water up the ascending pipe. The cup- ped leathers through which the piston \vorked, were similar to those now used in the hydrostatic press. A small cistern was sometimes formed on the top of the pump, that the water it contained might prevent air from entering through the stuffing box or between the cupped leathers : it served also to charge the pump through a small pipe, or cock. A valve opening up- wards was sometimes placed just above the plug of the cock, and the latter left open when the machine was started, that the air within the cylinder might escape ; and as soon as the water rose and filled the pump, the cock was shut. It is immaterial at what part of the cylinder the forcing or ascend- No. 123. Plunger Pump. Chap. 4.] Invented by Mor eland. 273 ing pipe is attached, whether at the bottom, near the top, or at any inter- mediate place. Small pumps of this kind are now commonly employed to feed steam boilers and for other purposes, and are worked by levers like the ordinary lifting and forcing pumps, the pistons being preserved in a perpendicular position by slings, &c. These pumps are believed to be of English origin, having been in* vented by Sir Samuel Moreland, " master of mechanics" to Charles 2d. Like some old philosophers, he exercised his ingenuity in improving hy- draulic and other engines, for raising water. Besides the plunger pump, for which he obtained a patent in 1675, he invented a " cyclo-elliptic movement" for transmitting motion to piston rods, a figure of which is in- serted by Belidor in the second volume of his Arch. Hydraulique. He is also the reputed inventor of the speaking trumpet,* of a capstan, and a steam-engine. In 1681 he made experiments with an engine consisting of two or more of his pumps at Windsor, in presence of the king and court, during which he forced water from the Thames in a continual stream to the top of the castle ; and according to Dr. Hutton, " sixty feet higher/' Moreland visited France the same or the following year, by order of the king, to examine the famous water-works at Marli, and while in Paris he exhibited models of his pump before the French court, and also con- structed several for his friends. In 1683 he presented an account of va- rious machines for raising water to Louis 14th, in a manuscript volume written and ornamented with much elegance; and in 1685, an account of his improvements was published in Paris in a work entitled, " Elevation des eaux par toute sorte de machines, reduite a la mesure, au poids, a la balance, par le moyen d'un nouveau piston et corps de pompe ; et d'un nouveau mouvement cyclo-elliptique, et rejetant 1'usage de toute sorte de manivelle ordinaires, par le Chevalier Moreland." It does not appear that he ever published this work in England, for Switzer had recourse to Ozanam, a French writer, for a description of Moreland's pump ; as he could procure no English account of it, "having taken great pains to find out what Sir Samuel had left on that head to no purpose." Ozanam states that Moreland spent " twelve years study and a great deal of money" to bring this pump to perfection ; " and without this new invention it would have been impossible to have reduced the raising of water to weight and measure, as he has done." The latter observation refers to the leaden weights placed on the piston rod, and the quantity of water raised by them : the water and the elevation to which it was raised being compared with the sum of the weights employed to force it up.b If we mistake not this is the most valuable and original modification of the forcing pump that modern times have produced. The friction of the piston is not only greatly reduced, but the boring of the cylinder is dis- pensed with ; an operation of considerable expense and difficulty, particu- larly so, before efficient apparatus for that purpose was devised. Another advantage is the facility of tightening the packing without taking out the piston or even stopping the pump. The value of Moreland's invention in * There is an instrument very like a speaking trumpet in the hands of a figure in one of the illustrations of the Eneid, executed in the fourth or fifth century, in the 25th plate of " Painting" in D'Agincourt's History of the Fine Arts. It is a conical tube, the length being equal to that of the individual using it; and by which he appears to direct, from the top of a tower, the combatants below. Kircherhas given a figure of a trumpet through which he supposed Alexander spoke to his army. b See Switzer's Hydrostatics, plate 25, pp. 302, 357. La Motraye's Travels, vol. in, Lon. 1732. Desaguliers' Philos. vol. ii, 266. Belidor's Architecture Hydraulique, torn. ii, 61, and L'Art D'Exploiter Les Mines, in Arts et Metiers, page 1058, and planche 47. 35 274 Frictionless Plunger Pump. [Book III. the estimation of engineers appears from the increasing employment of it. It is, moreover, for aught that is known to the contrary, the parent of the common lifting pump ; and to its inventor the double acting steam- engine of Watt is in some measure due, the efficiency of that noble ma- chine depending entirely upon closing the top of the cylinder and passing the piston rod through a stuffing box — both of which had already been done in this pump. Steam-engines have also been constructed on the same plan as these pumps ; one long piston playing in two horizontal cy- linders, and the power transmitted from it by means of a cross-head at- tached to the middle of its length, and on that part which moves between the stuffing boxes. Another celebrated machine is also copied from them — Bramah's hydrostatic press is one of Moreland's pumps. There is another species of plunger pumps in which the stuffing box is dispensed with, and consequently the piston works without friction. A square wooden tube, or a common pump log of sufficient length, and with a valve at its lower end is fixed in the well as shown in the figure. The depth of the water must be equal to the distance from its surface to the place of delive- ry ; and a discharging pipe having a valve opening upwards is united to the pump tree at the surface of the water in the well. The pis- ton (a solid piece of wood) is suspended by a chain from a working beam, and loaded suffi- ciently with weights to make it sink. As the liquid enters the pump through the lower valve, and stands at the same level within as without, whenever the piston descends, it necessarily dis- places the water, which has no other passage to escape but through the discharging pipe, in consequence of the lower valve closing. And when the piston is again raised as in the figure, a fresh portion of water enters the pump and is driven up in like manner. Dr. Robison observes that he has seen a ma- chine consisting of two of these pumps, made by an untaught laboring man. The plung- ers were suspended from the ends of a long beam, on the upper surface of which the man walked, as on the picotah of India. He stood on one end till one plunger descended to the bottom of its tube, and he then walked to the other end, the declivity at first being about 25°, but gradually growing less as he advanced. In this way he caused the other plunger to descend, and so on alternately. By this machine a feeble old man whose weight was HOlbs. raised 7 cubic feet of water 11 J feet high in a minute, and wrought eight or ten hours every day. A stout young man weighing 1341bs. raised 8£ cubic feet to the same height in the same time. The application of this pump is extremely limited, and there is a waste of power in the water that is uselessly raised around the piston at every stroke. The pistons of preceding machines are made of solid materials; but the pump now to be described has a liquid one. It was invented about the year 1720, by Mr. Joshua Haskins, who made the first experiment with it in the house and presence of the celebrated Desaguliers. His design No. 124. Frictionless Plunger Pumj). Chap. 4.] Mercurial Pump. 275 was to avoid the friction and consequent loss of power in common pumps, he therefore " contrived a new way of raising water without any friction of solids ; making use of quicksilver instead of leather, to keep the air or water from slipping by the sides of the pistons." Various modifications of it were soon devised by the inventor, by Dr. Desaguliers, and by Mr. William Vreem, the assistant of the latter, " who was an excellent mecha- nic." One form of it is represented by the figure. A is the suction pipe, the lower end of which is inserted in the water to be raised. Its upper end terminates in the chamber C, and is covered by a valve. The forcing pipe B, with a valve at its lower end, is also connected to the chamber. Between these valves a pipe, open at both ends, is inserted and bent down, as in the figure. The straight part attached to it is the working cylinder of the pump and should be made of iron. Another iron pipe, a little larger in the bore than the last, and of the same length, is made to slide easily over it. This pipe is closed at the bottom and suspended by chains or cords, by which it is moved up and down. Suppose this pipe in the position represented, and filled with mercury — if it were then lowered, the air in the cylinder and between the valves would become rarified, and the atmosphere pressing on the surface of the water in which the end of A is placed, would force the liquid up A till the density of the contained air was the same as before ; then by raising the pipe containing the mercury, the air, unable to es- cape through the lower valve, would be forced through the upper one ; and by repeating the ope- ration, water would at last rise and be expelled in the same way ; provided the elevation to which it is to be raised does not exceed thirteen times the depth of the mercurial column around the cy- linder ; the specific gravity of quicksilver being so many times greater than that of water. When the depth of the former is 30 inches, the latter may be raised as many feet in the suction pipe and forced up an equal distance through the forcing one, making together an elevation of sixty feet ; but if water be required higher, the depth of the mercurial column in the moveable pipe must be proportinably increased. To make a small quantity of mercury answer the purpose, a solid piece of wood or iron that is a little less than the cylinder, is secured to the bottom of the move- able vessel as shown in the centre : this answers the same object as an equal bulk of mercury. These pumps have their disadvantages : they are expensive ; and how- ever well made, the quantity of quicksilver required is considerable — the agitation consequent on the necessary movement soon converts it into an oxide and renders it useless — great care is also required in working these machines ; if the movements are not slow and regular, the mercury is very apt to be thrown out ; to prevent which the upper end of the vessel con taining it is dished or enlarged. For experimental researches modifica- tions of such pumps may be useful, but for the reasons above stated, they have never been extensively employed in the arts. A simple form, of one is described in a late volume of the London Mechanics' Magazine, and also in the 22d vol. of the Journal of the Franklin Institute, p. 327. See 125. Mercurial Pump. 276 Hydrostatic Press. [Book III. also vol. xxxii, Phil. Transactions, and Abridg. vol. vi, 352. Desaguliers' Phil. vol. ii, 491. In Jamieson's Dictionary, p. 852, a mercurial pump in the form of a wheel is described. The hydrostatic press is simply a cylindrical forcing pump, whose piston is moved by the water, instead of the latter by it. A platen, on which are placed the articles to be pressed, is connected to the upper end of the piston rod ; water is then injected into the cylinder by a much smaller pump, and as this liquid is, to all practical purposes, incompressible, the piston is necessarily raised, and the articles brought against an immoveable plate, between which and the platen they are compressed. The degree of pres- sure thus excited depends upon the difference between the area of the pistons of the pump and of the press. The apparatus exhibits in another form, the celebrated hydrostatic paradox by which the pressure of a liquid column however small, is made to counterbalance that of another however large. Hydrostatic presses have been applied with advantage in nume- rous operations, as, expressing oil from seeds, pressing paper, books, hay and cotton ; tearing up trees by the roots, proving the strength of steam boilers, metallic water-pipes, and even cannon. In this city (New- York) ships of a thousand tons are raised out of the water to repair, by one of these machines erected at the head of one of the docks. The cylinder is secured in a horizontal position, and the pumps are worked by a steam- engine. The frame on which the vessel floats, and by which it is raised, is suspended by a number of chains on each side that pass over pulleys and terminate at the end of the piston. There is a very interesting and beautiful illustration of the principle of Bramah's hydrostatic press in the contrivance by which bees store their honey. The cells, open at one end and closed at the other, are ar- ranged horizontally over each other, and in that position are Jilled with the liquid treasure. Now suppose a series of glass tumblers or tubes laid on their sides and piled upon one another in like manner were required to be then filled with water, it certainly would require some reflection to devise a plan by which the operation could be performed ; but whatever mode were hit upon, it could not be more ingenious and effective than that adopted by these diminutive engineers. At the further or closed extre- mity of each cell, they fabricate a mov cable piston of wax which is fitted air tight to the sides, and when a bee arrives laden with honey, (which is contained in a liquid form, in a sack or stomach,) she penetrates the piston with her proboscis and through it injects the honey between the closed end of the cell and the piston, and then stops the aperture with her feet. The piston is therefore pushed forward as the honey accumulates behind it, till at last it reaches the open end of the cell, where it remains, herme- tically sealing the vessel and excluding the air.a As soon as one cell is thus charged, the industrious owners commence with another. It will be perceived that these pistons are propelled precisely as in the hy- drostatic press, the liquid honey being incompressible, (with any force to which it is there subjected,) every additional particle forced in necessa- rily moves the piston forward to afford the required room. Without such a contrivance the cells could no more be filled, and kept so, than a bucket could be, with water, while laying on one side. Were the organization * To keep the honey pure, and preserve it from evaporation, in the high temperature of a hive, the air must be kept from it. Could human ingenuity have devised a more perfect mode of accomplishing the object? The fact is, bees in this matter, might long ago have taught man the practice which is now pursued of preserving both liquid and solid aliment fresh for years — in tin cases impervious to the air, and from which it has been excluded. Chap. 4.] French Lifting Pumps. 27? No. 126. Lifting Pump. of bees closely examined, it would doubtless be found that the relative diameters of their proboscis and of the cells, and the area of the (bellows) pumps in their bodies, are such as are best adapted to the muscular energy which ' they employ in work- ing the latter. Were it otherwise, a greater force might be required to inject the honey and drive for- ward the piston, than they possess. In the case of a hydrostatic press, when the resistance is too great to be overcome by an injection pump of large dia- meter, one of smaller bore is employed. We shall now produce a few specimens of forc- ing pumps with hollow pistons, or such as admit wa- ter to pass through them. If a common atmospheric pump be inverted, its cylinder immersed in water, and the valves of the upper and lower boxes reversed as in the figure, it becomes a forcing, or, as it is sometimes named, a lifting pump ; because the con- tents of the cylinder are lifted up when the piston is raised, instead of being driven out from below by its descent, as in Nos. 116, 117 In a lifting pump the liquid is expelled from the top of the cylinder — in a forcing one from the bottom — it is the water above the piston that is raised by the former ; and that which enters be- low it, by the latter. The piston rod in the figure is attached to an iron frame that is suspended to the end of a beam or lever as in Nos. 123, 124. The valve on the top of the piston, like that at the end of the cylinder, API opens upwards. When the piston descends (which it does by its own weight and that of the frame) its Jlj| valve opens and the water enters the upper part of the cylinder, then as soon as it begins to rise its valve closes, and the liquid above it is forced up the ascending pipe. Upon the return of the piston the upper valve is shut by the weight of the column above it, the cylinder is again charged and its con- tents forced up by a repetition of the movements. Machines of this description are of old date. They were formerly employed in raising water from mines. They were adopted by Rannequin in the celebrated water- works at Marli ; and by Lintlaer in the engines he erected during the reign of Henry 4th, at Pont Neuf, to supply the Louvre from the river Seine. As they cannot in all locations be inserted con- veniently in the reservoir containing the water to be raised, they have sometimes been placed in cis- terns erected above the original source, and sup- plied by atmospheric pumps extending to it, as in No. 127. The cylinder of the atmospheric pump terminates in the bottom of the cistern, and is plac- ed directly under that of the lifting one ; the pistons of both being attached to the same rod and worked by the same frame. Such was the construction 01 No. 127. Pumps from water- ™e old Parisian water- works at the bridge of No- works at Notre Dame, Paris, tre Dame. These consisted of a series of pumps arranged as in the figure, and worked by an undershot wheel. 278 Lifting Pumps. [Book III If the head of a common pump (No. 90) be closed, except an opening through which the rod works, or may be worked, it is then converted into a lifting pump, and will raise water to any elevation through a pipe attached to the spout. The earliest specimen that we have met with is represented by the 128th figure, from Agricola. Although a rude device, it is interesting as illustrative of the resources of old mining engineers, in modifying and applying the common wooden pump under a variety of circumstances. The upper parts of two atmospheric pumps terminate in a close chamber or strong box, (two sides of which are removed in the figure to show its interior,) their lower ends extending into water collected at a lower depth in the mine. From the top of the box a forcing pipe is continued to the surface of the ground, or to another level in the mine, from which the water raised through it can be discharged. The piston rods are worked by a double crank, one end of which turns in a socket formed in the inside of the chamber, and the other is continued through the opposite side and bent into a handle by which the laborer works the machine. Two collars are formed on the crank axle, one close to the out- side, and the other to the inside of that part of the chamber through which it passes, and some kind of packing seems to have been used to prevent the water from leaking through. Four iron arms with heavy balls at their ends are secured to the axle to equalize the movement. These were the old substitutes for the modern fly-wheel : they were quite common in all kinds of revolving machinery in the 15th and 16th centuries. No. 138. Lifting Pump from Agricola. No. 129. Modern Lifting Pump. The modern form of the lifting pump is represented in figure No. 129. The working cylinder being generally brass or copper, and having a strong flanch at each end : the upper one is covered by a plate with a stuffing box in the centre, through which the polished piston rod moves ; and. the under one by another to which the suction pipe is attached, and whose orifice is covered by a valve. To the forcing or discharging pipe Chap. 4.] Lifting Pump with two Pistons. 279 a cock is commonly soldered as in No. 118, to supply water when, re- quired at the pump. This is one of the most useful forms of the pump for household purposes : it may be placed in the kitchen, cellar or yard, and will not only draw water from a well, but will force it up to every floor of a dwelling, and still answer every object of the ordinary atmos- pheric pump; and if an air-vessel be connected to the pipe, as in No. 120, it will then become a domestic fire-engine ; and when a sufficient length of hose pipe is kept at hand, water may, in case of fire, be conveyed in a few moments to any part of the building. Desaguliers, a century ago, re- commended this application of it, and it is surprising that it has not be- come more general. The following extract from a pump-maker's circular, 120 years since, refers to it. " Pumps which may be worked by one man, for raising water out of any well, upwards of 120 feet deep, sufficient for the service of any private house or family, and so contrived that by turn- ing a cock, may supply a cistern at the top of the house, or a bathing vessel in any room ; and by screwing a leather pipe the water may be conveyed either up stairs, or in at a window, in case of any fire." Switzer's Hy- drostatics, 352. Although the valve in the ascending pipe is not an essential part of these pumps, it is a valuable addition, since it removes the pressure of the liquid column above it from the stuffing box, when the pump is not in use. The inventor of these pumps (and of the stuffing box) is unknown. They are described by Desaguliers, Belidor, and other writers of the last cen- tury as then common, and they are figured in the 6th volume of machines and inventions approved by the French Academy, p. 19. Sometimes the cylinder itself has been made to answer the purpose of an air-vessel. With this view it is made longer than usual, and the dis- charging pipe is connected to the middle of its length, below which the piston works. The air is therefore compressed in the upper part of the cylinder, but as it is liable to escape at the joints and through the stuff- ing box, a separate vessel is far preferable. Mr. Martin, in the 2d vol. of his Philosophy, has figured and described a pump of this kind, which he says was the invention of Sir James Creed. In 1815, the London Society of Arts awarded a silver medal and fifteen guineas for a lifting pump with two pistons. The cylinder was made twice the usual length, and each end furnished with a stuffing box through which two separate rods worked. The suction pipe being attached, like the forcing one, to the side of the cylinder; the lower piston was inverted having its valve on the top as in No. 126. The outer ends of the rods were connected to the centre of two small wheels or friction rollers which moved between two guide pieces, and thus prevented the rods from de- viating from the centre of the cylinders ; the upper wheel was connected by a short rod to the pump lever as in the common pumps, and the other one by a longer rod (bent at its lower part) to the same lever, but on the op- posite side of the fulcrum ; so that as one was raised the other was lowered ; hence the two pistons alternately approached to and receded from each other, and consequently one of them was always forcing up water when- ever the machine was at work. Transactions Soc. Arts, vol. xxxiii. 115. We believe these pumps have never been much used, nor do we think they possess any advantages over two separate ones; for they are to all intents and purposes double pumps. The cylinders are twice the length of single ones — they have two pistons, two rods, two stuffing boxes, and double the amount of friction of single ones. Two distinct pumps are more econo- 'mical. After one of the above has been a little while in use, air will un- avoidably insinuate itself through the lower stuffing box and diminish or 280 Description of a Pump from Besson. [Book III. destroy the vacuum upon which the efficiency of the machine depends. The same remarks apply to these that were made on atmospheric pumps with two pistons, at page 227. There is a pump with two pistons in Besson's Theatre des Instrumens, which shows that such devices were known in the 16th century. It con- sists of a square trunk four or five feet in length^ and the bore five or six inches across, immersed perpendicularly in water at the bottom of a well ; its lower end being open and the upper one closed, except at the centre, where an opening is left and covered by a valve. A square piston, with its valve opening upwards, is fitted to work in the trunk from below by a rod connected to its under side, as in No. 126. A lever passes through the lower part of the trunk, (through slits made for it in two op- posite sides,) one end of which is secured to a piece of timber walled in the well, by a pin, on which it moves ; and the other end extends to the op- posite side of the trunk, where it is hooked to a chain that reaches from the pump brake at the top of the well. The lower end of the piston rod is connected by a bolt to that part of the lever that is within the trunk. This apparatus forms the lifting or forcing part of the machine. A com- mon pump tree or bored log extends from the place to which the water is to be raised, to the top of the trunk, and the junction with the latter made perfectly tight : an upper box or piston with its rod is fitted to work in the tree like an ordinary wooden pump, while the valve on the trunk answers the purpose of a lower box. This rod is attached to the brake on one side of the fulcrum and the chain that is connected to the lever and lower rod to the opposite side, so that as one piston rises the other de- scends and a constant stream of water is discharged above. This is the oldest pump with two pistons that we know of, and it has one advantage over others, viz : in raising water without changing its di- rection. We at first intended to insert a figure of it, but the apparatus for working it is too complicated for popular illustration. Although mo- tion is imparted to the piston as noticed above, it is not done directly, but by means of such an enormous amount of complex and useless machinery as would excite amazement in a mo- dern mechanician. There is an assemblage of rods and levers, tongs and lazy tongs, chains, right and left hand- ed screws, a heavy counterpoise and a massive pendu- lum, &c., all of which are required to be put in motion be- fore the pistons can be moved. A figure of such a pump would possibly interest some readers as a matter of curiosity, for certainly a rarer example of the waste of power could not well be imagined : it presents as clumsy and " round-about" a mode of accomplishing a very simple purpose, as that of the genius who, in tap- ping a cask of wine, never thought of inserting the spigot into the barrel, but attempted to drive the barrel on the spigot. Sometimes pumps with solid and hollow pistons are combined as in No. 130, a contrivance of Mr. Treve- thick. The cylinder of a forcing pump communicates with that of an atmospheric one ; both piston rods are connected to a cross-bar and rise and fall together. When the pistons are raised the water above that in the long (or atmospheric) cylinder is discharged at the spout, and the space below them is filled by the atmosphere fore- run!^6 B mg up fresh portions through the suction pipe. Whew Chap. 5.] Rotary Pumps. 281 the pistons descend, the valve on the suction pipe closes, and the solid piston drives the water in its cylinder through the hollow one in the other, so that whether rising or falling the liquid continues to flow. As both cylinders are filled at the same time, the bore of the suction pipe should be proportionably enlarged. The plate bolted over the opening at the lower part of one cylinder is to give access, in large pumps, to the lower valve. In some pumps both a solid and a hollow piston are made to work in the same cylinder. Such were those that constituted the " single-cham- ber fire-engine" of Mr. Perkins. A plunger worked through a stuffing box as in No. 123, and its capacity was about half that of the cylinder ; consequently on descending it displaced only that pro portion of the contents of the latter. The apertures of discharge were at the upper part of the cylinder, and a single receiving one at the bottom. From the lower end of the plunger a short rod projected, to which a hollow piston or sucker was attached, fitted to work close to the cylinder, so that when the plunger was raised, this piston forced all the water above it through the discharg- ing apertures. To convert one of these pumps into a fire-engine, the cy- linder of the pump was surrounded by a shorter one of sheet copper, the lower end of which was left open, and its upper one secured air-tight to the flanch of the pump ; the space left between the two forming a passage for the water expelled out of the inner one. A larger and close cylinder encompassed the last, and the space between them was the air chamber, to the lower part of which a hose pipe was attached by a coupling screw in the usual way. Such pumps are more compact than those with two cylinders, but they are more complex, less efficient, and more difficult to keep in order and to repair. The friction of the plunger and sucker is much greater than that of the piston of an ordinary double acting pump of the same dimensions ; and the latter discharges double the quantity of water; for although double acting, the effect of these pumps is only equal to single acting ones. For the above reasons they have, we believe, become obsolete or nearly so. CHAPTER V. ROTARY or rotatory pumps : Uniformity in efforts made to improve machines — Prevailing custom < convert rectilinear and reciprocating movements into circular ones — Epigram of Antipater — Ancie \ opinion respecting circular motions— Advantages of rotary motions exemplified in various machines Operations of spinning and weaving; historical anecdotes respecting them — Rotary pump from Se.' viore — Interesting inventions of his — Classification of rotary pumps — Eve's steam-engine and pump- Another class of rotary pumps— Rotary pump of the 16th century— Pump with sliding butment— Trot ter's engine and pump— French rotary pump— Bramah and Dickeiison's pump— Rotary pumps with pis tons in the form of vanes— Centrifugal pump— Defects of rotary pumps— Reciprocating rotary pumps A French one— An English one— Defects of these pumps. No one can study the past and present history of numerous machines and devices without perceiving a striking uniformity in the efforts made to improve them in distant times and countries ; the same general defects and sources of defects seem always to have been detected, and similar me- thods hit upon to remedy or remove them : the same ideas, moreover, led inventors to modify and apply machines to other purposes than those for which they were originally designed, and also to increase their effect by changing the nature and direction of their motions. So uniform have been 36 282 Conversion of Rectilinear and Alternating Motions. [Book III. the speculations of ingenious men in these respects, that one might be al- most led to suppose they had reasoned, like the lower animals from a com- mon instinct ; and that the adage of Solomon, " there is no new thing un- der the sun," was as applicable to the inventions of man, as the works of nature. It would indeed be no very hard task to show that the preacher was correct, to an extent not generally believed, when he penned the fol- lowing interrogatory and reply — " Is there any thing whereof it may be said, — See, this is new ? — it hath been of old time which was before us." Did a modern savan invent some peculiar surgical instruments of great merit 1 — similar ones were subsequently discovered in the ruins of Pom- peii. Have patents been issued in late years for economizing fuel in the heating of water, by making the liquid circulate through hollow grate bars 1 — the same device has been found applied to ancient Roman boilers. And the recent practice of urging fires with currents of steam (also patented) was quite common in the middle ages. (See remarks on the Eolipile in the next book.) Numbers of such examples might be adduced from al- most every department of the useful arts. From the earliest times it has been an object to convert, whenever prac- ticable, the rectilinear and reciprocating movements of machines into cir- cular and continuous ones. Old machinists seem to have been led to this result by that tact or natural sagacity that is more or less common to all times and people : thus the dragging of heavy loads on the ground led to the adoption of wheels and rollers — hence our carts and carriages : — the rotary movements of the drill and the wimble superseded the alternating one of the punch and gouge, in making perforations : — the horizontal wheel of the potter rendered modeling of clay vessels by hand no longer neces- sary : — the whetstone gave way to the revolving grindstone : — the turning lathe produced round forms infinitely more accurate, and expeditiously than the uncertain and irregular carving or cutting away with the knife. The quern, or original hand mill, was more efficacious than the alternate action of the primitive pestle and mortar for bruising grain ; and the various forces by which corn mills have subsequently been worked, have always been applied through revolving mechanism. The short handles, on the moveable stone, by which females and slaves moved it round, became in time lengthened into levers, and being attached to the peripheries of larger stones, slaves were sometimes yoked to them, who ground the grain by walking round a circular path. Subsequently slaves were replaced by animals, and these, in certain locations, by inanimate agents — wind and water. The period is unknown when man first derived rotary motion from the straight currents of fluids, for there is no sufficient reason to be- lieve that the water mill located near the residence of Mithridates was the first one ever used in grinding corn : that may have been the one first known to the Romans ; but it is very probable that such machines as well as wind mills were in use in Egypt, Syria, China, and other parts of Asia, in times that extend far beyond the confines of authentic history. An epi- gram of Antipater, a contemporary of Cicero, implies that water mills were not then very common in Europe. " Cease your work, ye maids, ye who laboured in the mill : sleep now, and let the birds sing to the ruddy morning, for Ceres has commanded the water nymphs to perform your task ; these, obedient to her call, throw themselves on the wheel, force round the axle-tree, and by these means the heavy mill." Rotary motions were favorite ones with ancient philosophers : they considered a circle as the most perfect of all figures, and erroneously con- cluded that a body in motion would naturally revolve in one. To the substitution of circular for straight motions, and of continuous for Chap. 5.] Into Continuous Circular Ones. 283 alternating ones may be attributed nearly all the conveniences and elegan- cies of civilized life. It is not too much to assert that the present advanced state of science and the arts is due to revolving mechanism; we may speak of the wonders that steam and other motive agents have wrought, but what could they have done without this means of employing them * The application of rotary, in place of other movements, is conspicuous in modern machinery ; from that which propels the stately steam ship through the water, and those flying chariots named " locomotives" over the land, to that which is employed in the manufacture of pins and pointing of nee- dles. It is by this that the irregular motion of the ancient flail and primeval sieve, have become uniform in thrashing, bolting and winnowing machines; — hence our circular saws, shears and slitting mills ; — the abolition of the old mode of spreading out metal into sheets with the hammer, by the more expeditious one of passing it through rollers or flatting mills : — and hence revolving oars or paddle wheels for the propulsion of vessels — the process of inking type with rollers in place of hand balls — rotary and power printing presses — and revolving machines for planing iron and other metals instead of the ancient practice of chipping off superfluous por- tions with chisels, and the tedious operation of smoothing the surfaces with files. But in few things is the effect of this change of motion more conspi- cuous than in the modern apparatus for preparing, spinning and weaving vegetable and other fibres, into fabrics for clothing. The simple application of rotary motions to these operations has in a great degree revolutionized the domestic economy of the world, and has increased the general com- forts of our race a hundred fold. From the beginning of time females have spun thread with the distaff and spindle : Naamah the antediluvian, and Lachesis and Omphale the mythological spinsters, have been imi- tated in the use of these implements by the industrious of their sex in all ages and countries to quite modern days, and even at present they are employed by a great part of the human family. In India, China, Japan, and generally through all the East, as well as by the Indians of this he- misphere, this mode of making thread is continued : the filaments are drawn from the distaff and twisted by the finger and thumb, the thread being kept at a proper tension by a metallic or other spindle, sus- pended to it like the plummet of a builder's level, and the momentum of which, while turning round, keeps twisting the yarn or thread in the interim of repeating the operation with the fingers.* The thread as it is a There are numerous allusions in history to this primitive mode of spinning, that are highly illustrative of ancient manners. At the battle of Salamis, Queen Artemisia com- manded a ship in the Persian fleet, and Xerxes, as a compliment to her bravery, sent her a complete suit of armor, while to his general (who was defeated) he presented a distaff and spindle. When Pheretine applied to Euelthon of Cyprus for an army to re- cover her former dignity and country, he intimated the impropriety of her conduct by sending her a distaff of wool and a golden spindle. Herod, iv, 162. Hercules attempted to spin in the presence of Omphale, and she bantered him on his uncouth manner of holding the distaff. Among the Greeks and Romans, the rites of marriage directed the attention of women to spinning ; a distaff and fleece werfe the emblems and objects of the housewife's labors; and so they were among the Jews — " A virtuous woman [says Solomon] layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff." When Lu- cretia was surprised by the visit of Collatinus and his companions of the camp, although the night was far advanced, they found her with her maids engaged in spinning. A painting found in Pompeii represents Ulysses seated at his own gate, and concealed under the garb of a beggar ; Penelope, who is inquiring of the supposed mendicant for tidings of her husband, holds in one hand 'a spindle, as if just called from spinning. On the monuments of Beni Hassan both men and women are represented spinning and weaving. Several Egyptian spindles are preserved in the museums of Europe. See an account of a female in Sardis spinning while going for water, at page 22. 284 Rotary Pumps and Steam-engines. [Book III. formed is wound round the spindle. In 1530 Jurgen of Brunswick de- vised a machine which dispensed with this intermitting action of the fingers, i. e. he invented the spinning wheel, which rendered the operation of twisting the filaments uniform. The wheel, however, like the primitive apparatus it was designed to supersede, produced only one thread at a time; but in the last century Hargreaves produced the " spinning jenny," by which a single person on turning a wheel, could spin eighty-four threads at once ; then followed the " rollers" of Arkwright, the " mule" of Crompton, to which may be added the " gin" of Whitney, and also " carding engines," in place of the old hand cards, all composed of and put in motion by revolving machinery : — these have indefinitely extended the spinning of thread, and relieved females from a species of labor that, more than any other, occupied their attention from the beginning of the world ; and lastly " power looms" impelled by water, wind, steam, or animals (through the agency of circular movements) are rapidly superseding the irregular and alternating motion of human hands in throwing the shuttle to and fro. The conversion of intermitting into continuous circular movements is also obvious in ancient devices for raising water. The alternate action of the swape, the jantu and vibrating gutter thus became uninterrupted in the noria and tympanum — the irregular movement of the cord and bucket became uniform in the chain and pots ; and so did the motion of the pitcher or pail as used by hand, when suspended to the rim of a Per- sian wheel. And when the construction of machines did not allow of a suitable change or form, they were often worked by cranks or other simi- lar movements; (of this several examples are given in preceding pages;) but in no branch of the arts has this preference for circular movements over straight ones been so signally exhibited as in the numerous rotary pumps and steam engines that have been and still are brought forward ; and in no department of machinery has less success attended the change. Most of these machines that have hitherto been made may be considered as failures ; this result is consequent on the practical difficulties attending their construction, and the rendering of them durable. These difficulties (which will appear in the sequel) are to a certain extent unavoidable, so that the prospect of superseding cylindrical pumps and steam-engines is probably as remote as ever. At an early stage in the progress of the machines last named, it became a desideratum with engineers to obtain a continuous rotary movement of the piston rod in place of the ordinary rectilinear and reciprocating one, that the huge " walking beam," crank and connecting shaft might be dis- pensed with, the massive fly-wheel either greatly reduced or abandoned, and the power saved that was consumed in overcoming their inertia and friction at every stroke of the piston. Reasoning analogous to this had long before led some old mechanicians to convert the motion of the com- mon pump rod into a circular one ; in other words, to invent rotary or rotatory pumps. By these the power expended in constantly bringing all the water in the cylinder and suction pipe, alternately to a state of rest and motion was saved, because the liquid is kept in constant motion in passing through them. The steam engine was not only originally de- designed as a substitute for pumps to raise water, but in all the variety of its forms and modifications it has retained the same analogy to pumps as these have to bellows. One of the oldest of modern rotary steam engines, that of Murdoch, was a copy of an old pump, a figure of which, No. 131, is taken from Serviere's collection. Two cog wheels, the teeth of which are fitted to work accurately into each other, are enclosed in an elliptical case. The sides of these wheels Chap. 5.] Rotary Pump from Serviere. 235 turn close to those of the case, so that water cannot enter between them. The axle of one of the wheels is continued through one side of the case, (which is removed in the figure to show the interior,) and the opening made tight by a stuffing box or collar of leather. A crank is applied to the end to turn it, and as one wheel revolves, it necessarily turns the other; the direc- tion of their motions being indicated by the arrows. The water that enters the lower part of the case is swept up the ends by each cog in rotation, and as it cannot return between the wheels in con- sequence of the cogs being there always in contact, it must necessarily rise in the ascending or forcing pipe. The machine is therefore both a sucking and forcing one. Of rotary pumps this is not only one of the oldest, but one of the best. Fire engines made on the same plan were patented about twenty-five years ago in England, and more recently pumps of the same kind, in this country. We have seen one with two elliptical wheels, which were so geared that the longer No. 131. Rotary Pump from Serviere. . „ ° . ..,..& axis of one wheel might coincide (m one position) with the short one of the other. Sometimes a groove is made along the face of each cog, and a strip of leather or other packing se- cured in it. The pump figured above is believed to have been known long before Serviere's time, a model of it, as of other interesting machines, having been placed in his museum without regard to its origin. Ramelli is said to have described some similar ones in the middle of the 16th century, but we have not been able to procure a copy of his book. The suction pipe in the preceding figure has been added. In the original die water entered directly through the bottom of the case : the model was probably so made that part of the wheels might be visible, and the construction and operation of the machine more easily comprehended. Serviere was a French gentleman, born at Lyons in 1593. Indepen- dent in his circumstances, and inclined to mechanical researches, he was led to establish a cabinet of models of rare and curious machines — of these some were invented by himself and displayed uncommon ingenuity. It does not appear that any account of the whole was ever published ; a part only being included in the small volume edited by his grandson, the title of which we have given at the foot of page 63. That work is divided into three parts : the first relates to figures formed in the lathe, as spheres, cubes, ellipses, &c. ; some, being hollow and containing others within them, like Chinese balls, are extraordinary specimens of workmanship. There are also vases, urns, &c. not only round and elliptical, but angular, so that not only were the oval and eccentric chucks known to Serviere, but the lathe for turning irregular surfaces appears to have been used by him. The second part contains an account of clocks all made by himself, the mechanism of which is exceedingly ingenious. Some are moved by springs, others by weights, water, sand, &c. They are fully equal to any thing of the kind at the present day : indeed that beautiful device by which a small brass ball is made to traverse backwards and forwards across an inclined plane, which still retains a place among mantel clocks, is one 286 Rotary Pumps. [Book III of Serviere's, besides several modifications of it equally interesting. One half of the third part is occupied with descriptions of machines for raising water: these consist of gutters, swapes, chain of pots, gaming and losing buckets, norias, tympanums and other wheels ; and lastly, pumps, among which is the rotary one figured above. Breval, in his " Remarks on Eu- rope," part ii, page 89, mentions several machines in Serviere's " famous cabinet of mechanicks" that are not noticed in the volume published by his grandson ; while others are inserted that were not invented till after his death, as Du Fay's improvement on the tympanum. Rotary pumps may be divided into classes according to the forms of and methods of working the pistons, or those parts that act as such : and according to the various modes by which the butmmt is obtained. It is this last that receives the force of the water when impelled forward by the piston ; it also prevents the liquid from being swept by the latter en- tirely round the cylinder or exterior case, and compels it to enter the dis- charging pipe. In these particulars consist all the essential differences in rotary pumps. In some the butments are moveable pieces that are made to draw back to allow the piston to pass, when they are again protruded till its return ; in others, they are fixed and the pistons them- selves give way. It is the same with the latter ; they are sometimes per- manently connected to the axles by which they are turned, and some- times they are loose and drawn into recesses till the butments pass by. In another class the pistons are rectangular, or other shaped, pieces that turn on centres, something like the vanes of a horizontal wind mill, sweep- ing the water with their broad faces round the cylindrical case, till they approach that part which constitutes the butment, when they move edge- ways and pass through a narrow space which they entirely fill, and thereby prevent any water passing with them. In other pumps the butment is ob- tained by the contact of the peripheries of two wheels or cylinders, that roll on or rub against each other. No. 131 is of this kind — while the teeth in contact with the ends of the case act as pistons in driving the water before them, the others are fitted to work so closely on each other as to prevent its return. The next figure exhibits another modification of the same principle. In 1825 Mr. J. Eve, a citizen of the United States, obtained a patent in England for a rotary steam-engine and pump. No. 132 will serve to explain its application to raise water. Within a cylindrical case a solid or hollow drum A is made to revolve, the sides of which are fitted to move close to those of the case. Three projecting pieces or pistons, of the same width as the drum, are secured to or cast on its periphery ; they are at equal distances from each other, and their extremities sweep close round the inner edge of the case, as shown in the figure. The periphery of the drum revolves in contact with that of a smaller cylinder B from which a portion is cut off to form a groove or recess sufficiently deep to receive within it each piston as it moves past. The diameter of the small cy- linder is just one third that of the drum. The axles of both are continued through one or both sides of the case, and the openings made tight with stuffing boxes. On one end of each axle is fixed a toothed wheel of the same diameter as its respective cylinder ; and these are so geared into one another, that when the crank attached to the drum axle is turned, (in the direction of the arrow,) the groove in the small cylinder receives suc- cessively each piston ; thus affording room for its passage, and at the same time by the contact of me edge of the piston with its curved part, prevent- ing water from passing. As the machine is worked the water that en- ters the lower part of the pump through the suction pipe, is forced round Chap. 5.] Rotary Pumps. 287 and compelled to rise in the discharging one, as indicated by the arrows. Other pumps of the same class have such a portion of the small cylin- der cut off, that the concave surface of the remainder forms a continuation of the case in front of the recess while the pistons are passing ; and then by a similar movement as that used in the figure described, the convex part is brought in contact with the periphery of the drum till the piston's return. All rotary pumps are both sucking and forcing machines, and are gene- rally furnished with valves in both pipes, as in the ordinary forcing pumps. The butments are always placed between the apertures of the sucking and forcing pipes. No. 132. No. 133. There is another class of pumps that bears some relationship to the pre- ceding— the eldest branch, we believe, of the same family. One of these is figured in the 133rd illustration: the butment consists of a curved flap that turns on a hinge ; it is so arranged as to be received into a recess formed on the rim or periphery of the case, and into which it is forced by the piston. The concave side of the flap is of the same curve as the rim of the case, and when pushed back forms a part of it. Its width is, of course, equal to that of the drum, against the rim of which its lower edge is pressed ; this is effected in some pumps by springs, in others by cams cog wheels, &c., fixed on the axles, as in the last one. The force by which the flap is urged against the drum must exceed the pressure of the liquid column in the discharging pipe. The semicircular pieces on the outer edge of the case represent ears for securing the pump to planks or frames, &c., when in use. The arrows in the figures show the direction in which the piston and water is moved. Such machines have often been patented, both as pumps and steam- engines. In 1782 Mr. Watt thus secured a "rotative engine" of this kind, and in 1797 Mr. Cartwright inserted in the specification of his metallic pis- ton a description of another similar to Watt's, except that the case had two flaps, and three pistons were formed on the drum. In 1818 Mr. Routledge patented another with a single flap and piston, (Rep. of Arts, vol. xxxiii, 2d series ;) but the principle or prominent feature in all these had been applied long before by French mechanicians. Nearly a hun- dred years before the date of Watt's patent, Amontons communicated to the French Academy a description of a rotary pump substantially the same as represented in the last figure. It is figured and described in the first volume of Machines Approuv. p. 103 : the body of the pump or case 288 Rotary Pump of the 16th Century. [Book III is a short cylinder, but the piston is elliptical, its transverse diameter he- ing equal to that of the cylinder, hence it performed the part of two pistons. There are also two flaps on opposite sides of the cylinder. A pump not unlike this of Amontons, with an elliptical case, is described in vol. iv. of Nicholson's Phil. Journal 466. Several similar ones have since been proposed. In other pumps the flaps, instead of acting as butments, are made to perform the part of pistons ; this is done by hinging them on the rim of the drum, of which, when closed, they also form a part : they are closed by passing under a permanent projecting piece or butment that extends from the case to the drum. In No. 134 the butment is movable A solid wheel, formed into three spiral wings that act as pistons, is turned round within a cylindrical case. The butment B is a piece of metal whose width is equal to the thickness of the wings, or the interior breadth of the cylinder : it is made to slide through a stuffing box on the top of the case, and by its weight to descend and rest upon the wings. Its upper part terminates in a rod, which, passing between two rollers, pre- serves it in a perpendicular position. As the wheel is turned, the point of each wing, (like the cogs of the wheels in No. 131,) pushes before it the water that enters the lower part of the cylinder, and drives it through the valve into the ascend- ing pipe A : at the same time the butment is gradually raised by the curved surface of the wing, and as soon as the end of the lat- ter passes under it, the load on the rod causes it instantly to descend upon the next one, which in its turn produces the same effect. This pump is as old as the 16th century, and probably was known much earlier. Besides the defects common to most of its species, it has one peculiar to itself : — as the butment must be loaded with weights sufficient to overcome the pressure of the liquid column over the valve, (otherwise it would itself be raised and the water would escape beneath it;) the power to work this pump is therefore more than double the amount \vhich the water forced up requires. The instrument is interesting, however, as affording an il- lustration of the early use of the sliding valve and stuffing box ; and as containing some of the elements of recent rotary pumps and steam-engines. The pump represented by No. 135 consists also of an exterior case or short cylinder within which a small and solid one A is made to revolve. To the last an arm or piston is attached or cast in one piece with it, the sides and end of which are fitted to bear slightly against the sides and rim in the case. A butment B B slides backwards and forwards through a stuffing box, and is so arranged (by means of a cam or other contrivance connected to the axle of the small cylinder on the outside of the case) that it can be pushed into the interior as in the figure, and at the proper time be drawn back to afford a passage for the piston. Two openings near each other are made through the case on opposite sides of B B, and to these the suction and forcing pipes are united. Thus when the piston is moved in the direction of the arrow on the small cylinder, it pushes the water No. 134. Rotary Pump of the 16th century. Chap. 5.] Rotary Pumps. 289 before it, and the vacuity formed behind is instantly filled with fresh por- tions driven up the suction pipe by the atmosphere ; and when the pistpn in its course descends past B B it sweeps this water up the same way. Bramati and Dickenson adopted a modification of this machine in 1790, as a steam-engine and also as a pump. Rep. of Arts, vol. ii, 73. No. 135. No. 136. No. 136 represents another rotary engine. A figure of it is inserted the rather because it was reinvented here a -few years ago by a mechanic who was greatly distressed on finding that he had been anticipated. A notice of it may therefore prevent others from experiencing a similar disappoint- ment. Like most others it consists of two concentric cylinders or drums, the annular space between them forming the pump chamber ; but the inner one, instead of revolving as in the preceding figures, is immovable, being fixed to the sides of the outer one or case. The piston is a rectan- gular and loose piece of brass or other metal accurately fitted to occupy a ad move in the space between the two cylinders. To drive the piston, and at the same time to form a butment between the orifices of the induc- tion and eduction pipes, a third cylinder is employed to which a revolving motion is imparted by a crank and axle in the usual way. This cylinder is eccentric to the others, and is of such a diameter and thickness that its in- terior and exterior surfaces touch the inner and outer cylinders as repre- sented in the cut, the places of contact preventing water from passing : a slit or groove equal in width to the thickness of the piston is made through its periphery, into which slit the piston is placed. When turned in the direction of the large arrow, the water in the lower part of the pump is swept round and forced up the rising pipe, and the void behind the piston is again filled by water from the reservoir into which the lower pipe is inserted. This machin: was originally designed, like most rotary pumps, for a steam engine. It was patented in England by Mr. John Trotter, of London, in 1805, and is described in the Repertory of Arts, vol. ix, 2d series. As a matter ->f course, he contemplated its application to raise water : — " The said engine he observes] may be used to raise or give motion to fluids in any direction whatever." In others the pistons slide within a revolving cylinder or drum that is concentric with the exterior one. No. 137 is a specimen of a French pump of this kind. The butment in the orm of a segment is secured to the inner circumference of the case, and the drum turns against it at the centre of the chord line : on both sides of the place of contact it is curved to the extremities of the arc, and the uoking and forcing pipes communicate 37 290 Rotary Pumps. [Book III. with the pump through it, as represented in the figure. To the centre of one or both ends of the case is screwed fast a thick piece of brass whose outline resembles that of the letter D : the flattened side is placed fowards the butment and is so formed that the same distance is preserved between it arid the opposite parts of the butment, as between its convex surface and the rim of the case. The pistons, as in the last figure, are rectangular- pieces of stout metal, and are dropped into slits made through the rim of. the drum, their length being equal to that of the case, and their width to the distance between its rim and the D piece. They are moved by a crank attached to the drum axle. To lessen the friction and compensate for the wear of the butment, that part of the latter against which the drum turns is sometimes made hollow ; a piece of brass is let into it and pressed against the periphery of the drum by a spring. No. 137. No. 138. In No. 138 the axis of the drum or smaller cylinder is so placed as to cause its periphery to rub against the inner circumference of the case. Two rectangular pistons, whose length are equal to the internal diame- ter of the case, cross each other at right angles, being notched so as to allow them to slide backwards and forwards to an extent equal to the widest space between the two cylinders. The case of this purnp is not perfectly cylindrical, but of such a form that the four ends of the pistons are always in contact with it. An axle on the drum is moved by a crank. This pump, and another similar to it, were described in Bramah and Dickenson's patent for three rotative steam-engines in 1790. Rep. of Arts, vol. ii, 85. Fire engines have been made on the same principle. Another class of rotary pumps have their pistons made somewhat like the vanes of wind mills. They were originally designed as steam-engines, and were, if we mistake not, first introduced by Hornblower, in the latter part of the last century. He employed four revolving vanes which were so arranged that, while one passed edgeways through a narrow cavity which it filled, the opposite one presented its face to the action of the steam. These machines have been variously modified as pumps, but ge- nerally speaking they are more complex and of course more liable to de- rangement than others : we have known two of them, fifteen inches dia- meter and apparently well made, (at a cost of 150 dollars,) which a friend used to force water to an elevation of twenty feet, become deranged, and thrown aside as useless in the course of three or four weeks. A centrifugal forcing pump may be made by enclosing the arms of an atmospheric one, (such as represented at No. 95, page 229,) in a close Chap. 5.] Rotary Pumps. 291 drum or case, to which an ascending or forcing pipe is attached: the water would rise through the pipe, provided the velocity of the arms was increased according to the elevation of its discharging orifice. In place of tubular arms, two or more vanes radiating from a vertical axis and turned rapidly in the case would produce the same effect; the suction pipe being connected to the bottom at the centre and the forcing pipe to the rim or the top. Such pumps are in their construction simpler than other rotary ones, besides which no particular accuracy is required in fitting their working parts ; nevertheless, they are as liable to derangement as others, for the velocity required to be given to the arms is so great, that the teeth of the wheels and pinions by which motion is transmitted to them are soon worn out. Centrifugal pumps like those just described have been tried as substi- tutes for paddle wheels of steam-vessels : i. e, the wheels were con- verted into such pumps by inclosing them in cases made air-tight, except at the bottom through which the ends of the paddles slightly projected ; a large suction pipe proceeded from one side of each case (near its cen- tre) through the bows of the vessel and terminated below the water line : by the revolution of the wheels water was drawn through these tubes into the cases and forcibly ejected below in the direction of the stern, and by the reaction moved the vessel forward. It must not be supposed that the preceding observations include an ac- count of all rotary pumps. We have only particularized a few out of a great multitude, such as may serve as types of the various classes to which they belong. Were a detailed description given of the numerous forms of these machines, modes of operation, devices for opening and closing the valves, moving the pistons, diminishing friction, compensating for the wear of certain parts, for packing the pistons, &c. &c,, those readers who are not familiar with their history would be surprised at the ingenuity dis- played, and would be apt to conclude that all the sources of mechanical combinations had been exhausted on them. We would advise every mechanic who thinks he has discovered an improvement in rotary pumps, carefully to examine the Repertory of Arts, the Transactions of the So- ciety of Arts, the London Mechanics' Magazine, and particularly the Journal of the Franklin Institute of Pennsylvania, before incurring the expenses of a patent, or those incident to the making of models and experiments. Rotary pumps have never retained a permanent place among machines for raising water : they are, as yet, too complex and too easily deranged to be adapted for common use. Theoretically considered they are per- fect machines, but the practical difficulties attending their construction have hitherto rendered them (like rotary steam engines) inferior to others. To make them efficient, their working'parts require to be adjusted to each other with unusual accuracy and care, and even when this is accomplished, their efficiency is, by the unavoidable wear of those parts, speedily dimi- nished or destroyed : their first cost is greater than that of common pumps, and the expense of keeping them in order exceeds that of others ; they cannot, moreover, be repaired by ordinary workmen, since peculiar tools are required for the purpose — a farmer might almost as well attempt to repair a watch as one of these machines. Hitherto, a rotary pump has been like the Psalmist's emblem of human life : — " Its days are as grass, as a flower of the field it flourisheth, the wind [of experience] passeth over it, and it is gone" Were we inclined to prophecy, we should pre- dict that in the next century, as in the present one, the cylindrical pump will retain its preeminence over all others ; and that makers of the ordi- 292 Reciprocating Rotary Pumps. [Book III nary wooden ones will then, as now, defy all attempts to supersede the object of their manufacture. RECIPROCATING ROTARY PUMPS : — One of the obstacles to be overcome in making a rotary pump, is the passage of the piston over the butment, or over the space it occupies. The apparatus for moving the butment as the piston approaches to or recedes from it, adds to the complexity of the machine ; nor is this avoided when that part is fixed, for an equivalent movement is then required to be given to the piston itself in addition to its ordinary one. In reciprocating rotary pumps these difficulties are avoided by stopping the piston when it arrives at one side of the butment and then reversing its motion towards the other; hence these are less com- plex than the former : they are, however, liable to some of the same objec- tions, being more expensive than common pumps, more difficult to repair, and upon the whole less durable. Their varieties may be included in two classes according to the construction of the pistons ; those that are furnished with valves forming one, and such as have none the other. The range of the pistons in these pumps varies greatly ; in some the arc des- cribed by them does not exceed 90°, while in others they make nearly a complete revolution. They are of old date, various modifications of them having been proposed in the 16th century. No. 139 consists of a close case of the form of a sector of a circle, having an opening at the bottom for the admission of water, and another to which a forcing pipe with its valve is attached. A movable radius or piston is turned on a centre by a lever as represented ; thus, when the latter is pulled down towards the left, the former drives the contents of the case through the valve in the ascending pipe. No. 139. No. 140. Belidor has described a similar pump in the first volume of his Arch. Hydraul. 379. The case is a larger portion of a circle than that of No. 139, and the piston is furnished with a valve. A pump on the same prin- ciple was adopted by Bramah as a fire-engine in 1793 : His was a short cylinder, to the movable axle of which two pistons were attached that extended quite across, and had an opening covered by a clack in each. No. 140 consists of a short horizontal cylinder : a portion of the lower part is separated from the rest by a plate where the suction pipe termi- nates in two openings that are covered by clacks c c. The partition A Chap. 6.] Application of Pumps in Modern Water-icorks. 293 extends through the entire length of the cylinder and is made air and water tight to both ends, and also to the plate upon which its lower edge rests. The upper edge extends to the under side of the axle to which the piston B is united. One end of the axle is passed through the cylin- der and the opening made tight by a stuffing box ; it is moved by a crank or lever. Near the clacks c c two other openings are made through the plate, to which two forcing pipes are secured. These tubes are bent round the outside of the cylinder and meet in the chamber C where their orifices are covered by clacks. Thus when the piston is turned in either direction, it drives the water before it through one or other of these tubes ; at the same time the void left behind it is kept filled by the pressure of the atmosphere on the surface of the liquid in which the lower orifice of the suction pipe is placed. The edges of the pistons are made to work close to the ends and rim of the cylinder by means of strips of leather screwed to them. Modifications of these pumps have also been used in England as fire-engines. Reciprocating rotary pumps have sprung up at different times both here and in Europe, and have occasionally obtained " a local habitation and a name," but have never become perfectly domesticated, we believe, in any country. We have seen some designed for ordinary use that were ele- gantly finished, and decorated with gilding and japan — they resembled those exotic plants which require peculiar care, and are rather for orna- ment than for use. Reciprocating rotary pumps have also been proposed as steam-engines. Watt patented one in 1782. CHAPTER VI. APPLICATION of pumps in modern water-works : First used by the Germans — Water-works at Augs- •tourgh and Bremen— Singular android in the latter city— Old water-works at Toledo— At London bridge — Other London works moved by horses, water, wind and steam — Water engine at Exeter — Water- works erected on Pont Neuf and Pont Notre Dame at Paris — Celebrated works at Marli — Error of Rau- iequin in making them unnecessarily complex. American water-works : A history of them desirable — Introduction of pumps into wells in New- York city — Extracts from the minutes of the Common Council previous to the war of Independence — Public water-works proposed and commenced in 1774 Trea- sury notes issued to meet the expense— Copy of one— Manhattan Company— Water-works at Fair Mount, Philadelphia. BEFORE noticing another and a different class of machines, we propose to occupy this and the two next chapters with observations on the em- ployment of pumps in " water-works," and as engines to extinguish fires — both in this country and in Europe. The hydraulic machinery for supplying modern cities with water gene- rally consists of a series of forcing pumps very similar to the machine of Ctesibius, (No. 120 ;) and when employed to raise water from rapid streams, or where from tides or dams a sufficient current can be obtained, are worked like it by under or by overshot wheels. An account of old European water-works is an important desideratum, for it would throw light on the history of pumps in the middle ages, during which little or 'nothing respecting them is known. The older cities of Germany were the first in modern days that adopted them to raise water for public purposes ; but of their construction, materials, and application under various circum stances,, we have no information in detail Rivius, in his Commentary on 294 Pump Engines in Germany. [Book III, the machine of Ctesibius, speaks of pumps worked by water wheels as then common, (A. D. 154&.) The hydraulic engines at Augslurgh were at one time greatly celebrated. They are mentioned, but not described, by Misson and other travelers of the 17th century. They raised the water 130 feet. Blainville, in 1705, speaks of them as among the curiosities of the city. He observes — " The towers which furnish water to this city are also curious. They are near the gate called the Red Port, upon a branch of the Leek which runs through the city. Mills which go day and night, by means of this torrent, work a great many pumps,, which raise water in large leaden pipes to the highest story in these towers. In the middle of a chamber on each of them, which is very neatly and handsomely ceil- ing'd, is a reservoir of a hexagonal figure, into which the water is carried by a large pipe, the extremity of which is made like a dolphin, and through an urn or vase held by a statue sitting in the middle of the reservoir. One of these towers sends water to all the public fountains by smaller pipes, and the three others supply with water a thousand houses in the city ; each of which pays about eight crowns yearly, and receives a hun- dred and twenty pretty large measures of water every hour." Travels,, vol. i, 250. Misson's Travels, 5 ed. vol. i, 137. Contemporary with the engines at Augsburgh was one at Bremen that is mentioned by several writers of the 17th century. It was erected on one of the bridges and moved by a water wheel : it raised water into a reservoir at a considerable elevation, whence the liquid was distributed to all parts of the city. An old author when speaking of it, mentions an android in Bremen, a species of mechanism for which the Germans were at one time famous. At the entrance of the arsenal, he observes, " stands the figure of a warrior arm'd cap-a-pe, who, by mechanism under the steps, as soon as you tread on them, lifts up the bever of his helmet with his truncheon to salute you." There was also a celebrated water-engine at Toledo, the former capital of Spain. It raised the water of the Tagus to the top of the Alcazar, a magnificent palace erected on the summit of the declivity on which the city . built ; the elevation being " five hundred cubits from the surface of the river." What the particular construction of this machine was we have not been able to ascertain, nor whether it was originally erected by the Moors who built the palace. It is mentioned by Moreri as a "wonderful hydraulic engine which draws up the water from the river Tagus to so great a height, that it is thence conveyed in pipes to the whole city ;" but in the middle of the last century (1751) the author of the Grand Gazetteer,, or Topographic Dictionary, remarks (page 1289) that this " admirable engine" was then " entirely ruined." The introduction of pump engines into the public water- works of Eng- land and France is sufficiently ascertained. This did not take place till long after they had been employed in Germany ; and both London and Paris were indebted to engineers of that country for the first machines to raise water from the Thames and the Seine. Previous to their introduc- tion, cities were commonly supplied from springs by means of pipes. As early as A. D. 1236, the corporation of London commenced to lay a six inch leaden pipe from some springs at Tyburn, a village at that time some miles distant from the city. This is supposed to have been the first at- tempt to convey water to that city through pipes, and fifty years elapsed before the whole was completed. These pipes were formed of sheet lead and the seams were soldered : part of them was accidentally discovered in 1745 while making some excavations, and another portion in 1765. (Lon- don Mag. for 1765, p, £77.) In 1439 the abbot of Westminster, in whom Chap. 6.] London Water-works. 295 die right of the soil was vested, granted " to Robert Large the mayor and citizens of London, and their successors, one head [reservoir] of water, containing twenty-six perches in length and one in breadth, together with all its springs in the manor of Paddington : in consideration of which grant, the city is for ever to pay to the said abbot or his successors, at the feast of St. Peter, two pepper corns." This grant was confirmed by Henry VI, who at the same time authorized the mayor and citizens, by a writ of the privy seal, to purchase two hundred fothers of lead " for the intended works of pipes and conduits, and to impress plumbers and labourers." Maitland's Hist, of London, pp. 48, 107. In the 33d year of Henry VIII, the mayor of the city of Glocester, with the dean of the church there, were authorized to " convey water in pipes of lead, gutters and trenches" from a neighbouring hill, " satisfying the owners of the ground there for the digging thereof."* In the following year, the mayor and burgesses of Poole were authorized to erect a wind mill on the king's waste ground, and a conduit head sixteen feet square, " and to dig and draw [water] in, by, through and upon all places meet and convenient, into and from the same, &c. — yielding yearly to the king and his heirs one pepper corn."b It would appear that the reservoir was in too low a situation for its contents to flow through pipes to the town, and hence the wind mill to raise it sufficiently for that purpose. The machine used was probably the chain of pots, which, as remarked page 125, was at that time often employed in such cases. In the 35th of Henry VIII, the corporation of London was authorized to draw water through pipes from various villages and other places within five miles of the city, and for this purpose to enter any grounds not enclosed with " stone, brick or mud walls, and there to dig pits, trenches and ditches ; to erect heads, lay pipes, and make vaults and suspirals" &c. Two years afterwards, (A. D. 1546,) a law was passed by which those who destroyed conduit heads and pipes, were put to death.6 In 1547, William Lamb conveyed water in a leaden pipe from a conduit or spring, which still bears his name.d In 1582, the first pump machines were used in London. In that year Peter Maurice, a German engineer, proposed to erect a machine on the Thames for the more effectual supply of the city, " which being approved of, he erected the same in the river near London bridge, which by suction and pressure, through pumps and valves, raised water to such a height as to supply the uppermost rooms of the loftiest buildings, in the highest part of the city therewith, to the great admiration of all. This curious machine, the first of Hie kind that ever was seen in England, was so highly approved of, that the lord mayor and common council, as an encourage- ment for the ingenious engineer to proceed in so useful an undertaking, gra.nted him the use of one of the arches of London bridge to place his engine in, for the better working thereof."6 Maurice's engine consisted of a series of forcing pumps (similar to Nos. 118 and 121) seven inches in diameter, and the pistons had a stroke of thirty inches ; they were worked by an undershot wheel that was placed under one of the arches and turned by the current, during the rise and fall of the tide ; the water was raised to an elevation of 120 feet. The number of pumps and wheels was subsequently increased ; but in 1822, when the old bridge was taken down, the whole were removed/ Two years before Maurice undertook to raise water from the Thames, Stow says — " One Russel proposed to bring water from Isleworth, viz : a Statutes at large. Lon. 1631. b Ibid. 'Ibid. dMaiiland, 158. e Ibid. 160. f A description of the London Bridge Water-works, by Beighton, may be seen in the PhiLos. Trans, vol. vi, 358, and in Desaguliers' Fhilos. ii, 436. 296 French Water-works. [Book III. the river Uxbridge to the said north of London ; and that by a geometrical instrument : he propounded the invention to Lord Burleigh." In 1594, Bevis Bulmer, an English engineer, undertook to supply a small district of the city with Thames water, which he raised by four pumps that were worked by horses. They were continued in use till the time that Mait- land commenced his history, viz : to 1725. The pumps of other London works were moved by horses, by wind mills, and others by the current of the common sewer.a About the year 1767, one of Newcomen's steam- engines was erected at the London bridge works to raise water at neap tides, and also as a security against fire during the turning of the tide, when the wheels were consequently at rest. A company was incorpo- rated in 1691 to supply the neighbourhood of York Buildings with Thames water: Newcomen's engines were employed; and the pumps had solid plungers, one of which we have figured and described at page 272 — Maitland enumerates them among other causes of the company's embarrass- ments : " the directors, by purchasing estates, erecting new water-works [new machines for raising water] and other pernicious projects, have almost ruined the corporation ; however, their chargeable engines for raising water by fire, being laid aside, they continue to work that of horses, which, together with their estates in England and Scotland, may in time restore the company's affairs."b A figure of this chargeable engine is inserted in the second volume of La Motraye's Travels. The author of the Grand Gazetteer, a folio of nearly 1500 pages, pub- lished in 1751, was a native of Exeter, on which account he excuses him- self for describing that city at large ; after mentioning some ancient •on- duits he observes : — " this city is otherwise well watered, and not only by most houses of note having wells and pumps of their own, but by the river water being forced by a curious water-engine, through pipes of bored trees laid under ground, even up to the very steep hill at Northgate Street ; and then by pipes of lead into the houses of such inhabitants as pay a very moderate price for such benefit. The said water house and engine were begun about Anno. 1694." This extract shows that at the close of the 17th century, such works were not very common in English cities : of this there are numerous indications : thus at Norwich " the water-works at the new mills were undertaken in 1697, and completed in about two years."6 During the reign of Henry IV of France, John Lintlaer, a Fleming, erected an engine consisting of lifting pumps (such as No. 125) at the Pont Neuf which were worked by the current of the Seine. The water was raised above the bridge and conveyed in pipes to the Louvre and Tuille- ries. This engine received the appellation of The Samaritan, from bronze figures of Christ and the woman of Samaria, which decorated the front of the building in which it was enclosed. The success that attended this experiment, led to the erection of similar engines at Pont Notre Dame, a figure of one of the pumps of which is inserted at page 277. The most elaborate machine ever constructed for raising water was probably the famous one at Marli, near Paris, for supplying the public gardens at Versailles from the Seine. It was designed by Rannequin, a Dutch engineer, and set to work in 1682, at a cost of eight millions of livres — about a million and half of dollars.d We are not aware that any description of it in detail was ever published till Belidor inserted a short account in the second volume of his Architecture Hydraulique in 1739 ; and such was its magnitude and the multiplicity of its parts, that he was » Maitland, pp. 622, 628. b Ibid 634. ' Norfolk Tour, Norwich, 3795. d Desaguliers says "eighty millions, about four millions of pounds sterling/' bu* Belidor has only eight. Chap. 6.] Water-works at Marli. 297 for a long time unwilling to undertake its elucidation, on account of the difficulty of describing it with sufficient precision. Its general features may be sketched in a few words, but a volume of letter-press and another of plates, would be required to explain and delineate the whole minutely. The reservoir or head of the aqueduct, into which water from 'the Seine was raised by this machine, was constructed on the top of a hill, 614 toises, or three quarters of a mile, from the river, and at an elevation of 533 feet (English) above it. To obtain a sufficient motive power, the river was barred up by a dam, and its whole width divided, by piles, into fourteen distinct water courses, into each of which a large undershot wheel was erected. The wheels, by means of cranks attached to both ends of their axles, imparted motion to a number of vibrating levers, and through these to the piston rods of between 200 and 300 sucking and forcing pumps ! The pumps were divided into three separate sets. The first con- tained 64, which were placed near the river, and were worked by six of the wheels : they drew the water, by short suction pipes, out of the river and forced it through iron pipes, up the hill ; but instead of these pipes being continued directly to the reservoir, (which might have been done by making them and the machinery of sufficient strength,) Rannequin made them terminate in a large cistern, built for the purpose, at the dis- tance from the river of 100 fathoms only, and at an elevation of about 160 feet. In this cistern he then placed 79 other pumps (the second set) to force the water thence to another cistern 224 fathoms further up the hill, and at an elevation of 185 feet above the other. In this last cistern 82 pumps more (the third set) were fixed, which forced the contents to the reservoir. In thus dividing the work, Rannequin made a mistake for which no in- genuity could compensate : as the second and third sets of pumps con- taining no less than one hundred and sixty-one, with all the apparatus for working them, merely transferred through a part of the distance, the water which the first set drew directly from the river, they were in reality un- necessary, because the first set might have been made to force it through the whole distance ; hence they not only uselessly consumed (at least) four fifths of the power employed, but they rendered the whole mass of machinery cumbersome and complicated in the highest degree ; and con- sequently extremely inefficient, and subject to continual repairs. The first set of pumps, as already observed, were worked by the wheels near which they were placed, and the remaining wheels imparted motion to the piston rods of the second and third sets, in the two cisterns on the hill : of these, therefore, eighty-two pumps were stationed at an elevation of upwards of three hundred feet above the power that worked them ; and nearly half a mile from it ! and seventy-nine were one hundred fathoms from the wheel, and 160 feet above them ! To work these pumps, a num- ber of chains, or jointed iron rods, were extended on frames above the ground, all the way from the cranks on the water wheels in the river to both cisterns, where they were connected to the vibrating beams to which the piston rods were attached. It was the transmission of power to such elevations and extraordinary distances by these chains, that acquired for the machine the title of" a monument of ignorance." A writer in the Penny Magazine (vol. iv, page 240) who examined the machine in 1815, says the sound of these rods working was like that of a number of wagons loaded with bars of iron running down a hill with axles never greased. The creaking and clanking (he observes) must have convinced the most ignorant person that the expenditure of power was enormously beyond what was required for the purpose effected. It has 38 298 American Water-works. [Book III, been estimated that 95 per cent of the power was expended in communi- cating motion to the apparatus ! The evil of working the pumps with shafts and chains at such great distances from tlie power, was seen a few years after the machine was completed. In 1738 an attempt was made by M. Camus to raise the water to the reservoir by a single lift. The attempt succeeded but par- tially, and the machine was much strained by the extraordinary effort, chiefly because only a small portion of the power was used ; viz : those wheels that raised the water into the first cistern; the others which moved, the shafts and chains abovementioned, not being applicable for tire pur- pose. But even this comparatively small power forced the water to thf reservoir, and thus demonstrated the practicability of completing the work at one throw, if the whole apparatus had been adapted accordingly. No- thing more was done for nearly forty years, and the machine proceeded as before till 1775, when another trial was made to raise the water only to the second cistern : this succeeded, and it was then hoped that the first cistern would be dispensed with ; but many of the old pipes burst from the undue strain upon them, financial difficulties impeded their renewal, and the old plan was once more resorted to. The water wheels at last fell into decay and were replaced by a steam engine, of sixty-four horse power, by order of Napoleon; but the old shafts, chains, pipes and cisterns, &c. still remain. We have mentioned only 225 pumps, but there were in all upwards of 250 ; some being feeders to others, and to keep water always over the pistons of those near the river. As each pump had two valves, an im- mense quantity of water must have escaped at every stroke on the open- ing and closing of 500 of these ; to which may be added that which leaked past the leathers or packing of the pistons, and through the innumerable joints. The 64 pumps near the river were placed in a perpendicular posi- tion and had solid pistons. They resembled No. 118, except that the suck- ing as well as forcing pipes were united to the sides of the cylinders : those in the cisterns had hollow pistons, and the cylinders were inverted and immersed in the water : one of them is represented at No. 126. AMERICAN WATER-WORKS. — A history of these is desirable and is cer- tainly due to posterity. There are circumstances connected with their origin, plans, progress and execution, especially in the older cities of the Union, of Mexico and the Canadas, that ought to be preserved. An ac- count of them would be useful to future engineers, and, as a record of his- torical and statistical facts, would include matter of general interest in com- ing times. The circumstances attending the first use of pumps and fire- engines, &c. may now be deemed too trifling to deserve particular notice, but they will increase in interest as time grows older. When the destiny that awaits the republic is accomplished — when the continent becomes studded with cities from one ocean to the other, and civilization, science and self government pervade the whole, then every incident relating to the early cultivation of the useful arts and improvements of machinery will be sought for with avidity and be dwelt upon with delight. Why should not the introduction of the most useful materials, manufactures and implements into this mighty continent form episodes in its history, as well as the fleece, the auger, saw, or bellows in that of classic Greece ] And why should not the names of those persons be preserved from oblivion who here made the first pump and fire-engine, the first cog wheel and steam- engine — who built the first ship, forged the first anchor, erected the first saw, slitting, or grist mill — who made the first plough, grew the first wheat, raised the first silk, wove the first web, cast the first type, made the first Chap. 6.] Introduction of Pumps into Wells in New-York. 299 paper, printed the first book, &c. &c. "? It is such men as these and their successors, that found, strengthen and enrich a nation — who, without orr- tentation or parade, promote its real independence — men, whose labors should be mentioned in the national archives with honor, and whose st:.- tues arid portraits should occupy the niches and panels of the capitol. The precise time when pumps were first introduced into New-York is uncertain. This city, as is well known, was founded by the Dutch in 1614, who gave it the appellation of New- Amsterdam, and to the colony that of New-Netherlands ; names that were continued till the British, in 16G4, took possession of both and imposed the present ones. In examining the manuscript Dutch records in the office of the clerk of the Common Coun- cil : (a volume of which including the period that extends from May 29, 1647, to 1661, has been translated,) we have not met with any reference to pumps, either in wells or as fire-engines. In the first volume of " Mi- nutes of the Common Council" (in manuscript) which embraces the trans- actions from October 1675 to October 1691, are several ordinances relating to wells, but no mention is made of pumps or other devices by which the water was raised. In the second volume under the date of August 31, 1694, a resolution directed that " the public wells within the city be repaired as formerly." From the following extract it appears that the water was raised by a cord and bucket, a windlass, or a swape : September 24, 1700, " Ordered that the neighbourhood that live adjacent to the king's farm and have benefit of the public well there built, do contribute to the charge thereof in proportion, or else be debarred from drawing water there." In the third volume, containing minutes from February 1702 to March 1722, are notices respecting wells to be dug and others to be filled up, but nothing is said respecting pumps being placed in any. The same remark applies to the fourth volume, including a period of eighteen years, viz : from April 1722 to September 1740 ; and yet it would seem that pumps were at this last date used in some of the public wells, for in the fifth volume under the date of October 25, 1741, they are referred to in a " draft of a bill for mending and keeping in repair the public wells AND PUMPS in this city ;" and again November 8, 1752, a bill was before the corporation "for keeping in repair the public wells AND PUMPS; and January 10, 1769, two hundred pounds [were] ordered to be raised " for mending and keeping in repair the public wells AND PUMPS." The precise period when pumps were first introduced is therefore uncertain ; but from the language of the minute of October 1741, it would appear that they had then been some time in use in public wells ; and from another minute in the same volume, in private wells also, for it was ordered that "the pump" of an individual should be deemed a public one and kept in repair at the public expense, on an application to that effect being made by the owner. From the rapid growth of the citya the number of wells was increased, as now, every year, and in 1774 measures were taken to insure a more abundant supply from a large well in the Collect, the water to be raised by machinery and distributed through the city in wooden pipes. On the 22d April of that year, Christopher Coles proposed to the corporation " to erect a reservoir and to convey water through the several streets of this city." The proposition was subsequently approved of, and Mr. Coles directed " to enlarge the well and proceed." A committee was appointed aln^698 the population was 4,302 1731 6,628 1790 . 1800 . 33,131 60 489 1825 . 1830 . 167,059 203 007 1756 . . 10 381 1810 q« 070 IQQC: 270 flfiQ 1773 . . 21 876 1820 1 9^ 70fi 1H40 Q 1 2 Q*?? 1786 23,614 300 Philadelphia Water-works. [Book III. to assist him and to superintend the works, and several contracts were made for materials. To meet the expense o£2500 in treasury notes were ordered to be issued, and subsequently further amounts were printed and issued. One of the small notes is now in the possession of John Lozier, Esq., superintendent of the Manhattan water- works, and is in these words : NEW-YORK WATER-WORKS. No. 3842. This note shall entitle the bearer to the sum of TWO SHILLINGS, current money of the colony of NEW- YORK, payable on DEMAND, by th~ MAYOR, ALDERMEN and COMMONALTY of the city of New- York, at the office of cJiamlcrlain of the said city , pursuant to a vote of the said Mayor, Al- dermen and Commonalty of this date. Dated the second day of August , the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy -Jive. By order of the Corporation, WM. WADDELL, ii*. J. H. CRUGER. It appears that the well (near White street) was enlarged, and a reser- voir built, but no pipes were laid nor machinery to raise water erected before the war broke out and put a stop to the work. The project was not again revived till 1797, when the Manhattan Company was incorpo- rated : the present wells were then made and the water raised by three or four common forcing pumps, worked by horses. These pumps raised the water by atmospheric pressure twenty-five feet, and forced it forty feet higher, into a reservoir in the Park where the post office is now (1840) located. In 1804 the pumps were replaced by two double acting ones (No. 122) fifteen inches in diameter and with a stroke of four feet. They were and still are worked by one of Watt's steam-engines. The water is raised to the same elevation as before. These works will probably be discontinued as soon as the Croton aqueduct, now being constructed, is finished. The first water-works of Philadelphia were commenced in 1799, and consisted of forcing pumps, worked by steam-engines which raised water from the Schuylkill into a reservoir constructed, at an elevation of 50 feet, on the banks of that river ; and from which it was conveyed to the city in pipes of bored logs. In 1811 the " city councils" appointed a com- mittee to devise means for procuring a more perfect supply than these works afforded : and shortly after it was determined to erect two steam- engines and pumps on another location, viz : at Fair Mount, two miles and a half from the city, and near the upper bridge that crosses the Schuyl- kill. A reservoir 318 feet in length, 167 in width, and 10 in depth, was made at an- elevation of 98 feet, into which the pumps forced water from the river. The great expense attending the employment of steam-engines led to the adoption (in 1819) of water as the moving power. A dam was erected, and in 1822 three water wheels were put in operation ; these, by cranks on their axles imparted motion through a connecting rod to the pistons of the pumps. In addition to the water consumed in turning these wheels, a surplus remained to work five additional ones, whenever the wants of the city might require them. An additional reservoir was also made, which contains four millions of gallons. The water in both is 102 feet above low tide, and 56 above the highest ground in the city. Iron pipes were also substituted for the old wooden ones. The whole was executed under the directions of F. Graff, Esq. We took the opportunity while at Philadelphia in October of the pre- Chap. 6.] A fine specimen of Hydraulic Machinery. 301 sent year (1840) to visit Fair Mount. Six breast wheels (15 feet long and 16 feet in diameter) were in operation ; each, by a crank on one end of its axle, communicating motion to the piston rod of a single pump.8 The pumps are double acting, the same as figured and described at page 271. They are placed a little below the axles of the wheels and in nearly a ho- rizontal position. The cylinders are 16 inches diameter; and, that the water may not be pinched in its passage into and escape from them, the induction and eduction pipes are of the same bore; and all angles or abrupt changes in their direction and those of the mains are avoided. The stroke of two or three of the pumps was four feet, and their wheels made fourteen revolutions per minute : the others had a stroke of five feet ten inches, and the wheels performed eleven revolutions in a minute, conse- quently the contents of the cylinders of the latter were emptied into the reservoirs twenty-two times in the same period, and those of the former twenty-eight times. The cylinders are fed under a head of water from the fore bays and they force it to an elevation of 96 feet, through a dis- tance of 290. An air chamber is adapted to each. It is impossible to examine these works without paying homage to the science and skill displayed in their design and execution ; in these res- pects no hydraulic works in the Union can compete, nor do we believe they are excelled by any in the world. Not the smallest leak in any of the joints was discovered ; and, with the exception of the water rushing on the wheels, the whole operation of forcing up daily millions of gallons into the reservoirs on the mount, and thus furnishing in abundance one of the first necessaries of life to an immense population — was performed with less noise than is ordinarily made in working a smith's bellows ! The picturesque location, the neatness that reigns in the buildings, the walks around the reservoirs and the grounds at large, with the beauty of the sur- rounding scenery, render the name of this place singularly appropriate. Dr. T. P. Jones, the talented editor of the Journal of the Franklin In- stitute, promised his readers " A history of the origin, progress and pre- sent state of the Water-works at Fair Mount," some years ago, but which has not yet been published. His familiarity with the- subject in general, and with those works in particular, would make the history highly inter- esting to the present generation, and a source of valuable information to future ones. See Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol. iii, first series ; which contains a plan and section of one of the wheels and one of the pumps. • What a contrast with the old works at London bridge, where one wheel worked six- torn small pumps ; the friction of the numerous pistons and the apparatus for moving them consuming a great portion of the power employed. 302 Fire Engines. [Book III, CHAPTER VII. FIRE-ENGINES : Probably used in Babylon and Tyre — Employed by ancient warriors — Other devices of theirs — Fire-engines referred to by Apollodorus — These probably equal in effect to ours : Spiritalia of Heron : Fire-engine described in it — Pumps used to promote conflagrations — Greek fire, a liquid pro- jected by pumps — Fires and wars commonly united — Genera's, the greatest incendiaries — Saying of Crates respecting them — Fire pumps the forerunners of guns — Use of engines in Rx>me — Mentioned in a letter of Pliny to Trajan, and by Seneca, Hesychius and Isidore. Roman firemen — Frequency of fires noticed by Juvenal — Detestable practice of Crassus — Portable engines in Roman houses — Modern eu- pines derived from the Spiritalia — Forgotten in the middle ages — Superstitions with regard to fires — Fires attributed to demons — Consecrated bells employed as substitutes for water and fire-engines — Extracts (Vom the Paris Ritual, Wynken de Worde, Barnaby Googe and Peter Martyr respecting them — Emble- matic device of an old duke of Milan — Firemen's apparatus from Agricola — Syringes used in London to quench fires in the 17th century — Still employed in Constantinople — Anecdote of the Capudan Pacha — Syringe engine from Besson — German engines of the 16th century — Pump engine from Decaus — Pump engines in London — Extracts from the minutes of the London Common Council respecting engines and squirts in 1667 — Experiment of Maurice mentioned by Stow the historian — Extract from 'a history of the first inventors.' OF the machines described in the 1st and 2d books some are employed in raising water for the irrigation of land, and for numerous purposes of rural and domestic economy ; others in various operations of engineering and the arts, but with the exception of the centrifugal pumps, (Nos. 95, 6, and 7,) the liquid falls inertly from them all — i. e. it is not forcibly ejected as from a forcing pump or syringe : whether it be poured from a bucket, drawn from a gutter, escape from a noria, or from the orifice of a screw, or the spout of an atmospheric pump, it flows from each by the influence of gravity and consequently descends as it flows — such machines are there- fore inapplicable for projecting water on fires, because for this purpose the liquid is required to ascend after leaving the apertures of discharge and with a velocity sufficient to carry it high into the air ; and also when conveyed to a distance through flexible or other tubes, to be delivered from them at elevations far above the machine itself. As these effects are produced by the pumps described in the present division of the subject, most of them have at different times been adopted as fire-engines ; some account of these important machines may therefore be inserted here. Water is the grand agent that nature has provided for the extinguish- ment of flames, and contrivances for applying it with effect have, in every civilized country, been assiduously sought for. In the absence of more suitable implements, buckets and other portable vessels of capacity, at hand, have always been seized to convey and throw water on fires; and when used with celerity and presence of mind at the commencement of one have often been sufficient; but when a conflagration extends beyond their reach, the fate of the burning pile too often resembles that of the ships of Eneas: Nor buckets poured, nor strength of human hand Can the victorious element withstand. Eneid, v. The necessity of some device by which a stream of water might be forced from a distance on flames must have been early perceived, and if we were to judge from the frequency and extent of ancient conflagrations, the pro- digious amount of property destroyed, and of human misery induced by them, we should conclude that ingenious men of former times were stimu- lated in an unusual degree to invent machines for the purpose. That this was the case cannot well be questioned, although no account of their la- Chap. 7.] Fire-engines employed in Ancient Wars. 303 bors has reached our times. It seems exceedingly probable that some kind of fire-engines were used in the celebrated cities of remote antiquity — in Nineveh, Tyre, Babylon and others. It is scarcely possible that the Tyrian and Babylonian mechanicians, whose inventive talents and skill were proverbial, should have left their splendid cities destitute of such means for preserving them from the ravages of fire. If the great extent of Babylon, for example, be considered, its location, (on an extensive plain,) the length of its streets, (fifteen miles,) the height of its buildings, (three and four stories,) and its unrivaled wealth, together with the heat and dryness of the climate ; the necessity of such machines will be apparent, and what appears necessary to us, we may rest assured, appeared equally so to its mechanicians, and that they were quite as capable of providing by their ingenuity for the emergency. Nor are we left wholly to conjec- ture respecting their knowledge of hydraulic or pneumatic machinery, since the most memorable machine for raising water in the ancient world was made and used at Babylon, and one which, as has been elsewhere observed, greatly exceeded in the elevation to which it raised it, all, or nearly all the water-works of modern days. Had they engines like ours then ] We dare not say they had, although we see nothing improbable in the opinion : the antiquity of the syringe is unquestionable ; and its ap- plication to project water on flames must have been as obvious in remote as in present times ; and people would as naturally be led then as now, to construct large ones for that purpose. There are other reasons for believing that syringes or pumps for squirt- ing water on fires were in use previous to the time they are first mention- ed in history. Fire was one of the most common and most destructive agents employed in ancient wars. When a city was besieged or assaulted, it was the first object with the assailants to protect the moving towers, in which their battering engines, &c. approached the walls, from being con- sumed by fire, oil and pitch, &c. thrown upon them from the ramparts. Every source was examined that ingenuity could unfold, for materials and devices to protect them; and as not only the lives and property of the in- habitants, but often the destinies of armies arid even of nations were on such occasions at stake, it is reasonable to conclude that the most perfect apparatus which could then be procured, were employed both for destroy- ing buildings by fire, and also for preserving them from it. We know that men were specially trained to fire buildings, and that they were ex- pert in their profession, especially in shooting lighted arrows and darts into and upon structures that could not be approached ; hence the neces- sity of devices for throwing water upon these missiles and the places in- flamed by them. There is an allusion to both practices in the Epistle to the Ephesians, vi, 16. Such a system of warfare could never have been carried to the extent that it was, and for so many ages too, among the cele- brated nations of old, without forcing pumps or something like them being used to squirt water on such parts as could not be reached by it when thrown from the hand. We cannot conceive how the constant repetition of one army applying its energies to the destruction of another by means of fire, and the latter equally intent on devising and applying means to extinguish it, without the application of the syringe and of machines on the principle of the bellows occurring to them — an application so obvious (even then) that the slightest mental effort to produce a contrivance for the purpose could not have overlooked it, even if the occasions were of little moment, much less, when the inventive powers of armies, and of military engineers in particular, were engaged in the research, and the fate of nations depended upon the result. From a remark in one of Pliny's 304 Fire Engines mentioned by Apollodorus. [Book III. letters, to which we shall presently refer, it appears that among the Romans individuals were brought up to the profession of extinguishing fires. The Helepoles, or ' town takers' of Demetrius, although proofs of his me- chanical genius, would have availed him little at the siege of Rhodes, nor the movable towers of Hannibal at Saguntum, if these warriors had not been in possession of means to prevent them from being consumed by the fire of the besieged — of materials to resist its effects, and apparatus to ex- tinguish it. That the resources of the ancients in these respects were not inferior to ours, may be inferred from several historical facts respecting their modes of securing these towers. They were generally covered with raw hides, leather soaked in water, or cloth made of hair, and sometimes, although seldom, they were plated with metal. Such were some of those employed by Titus at the siege of Jerusalem. They were seventy-five feet high and were covered all over with sheets of iron ; perhaps nothing else could have resisted the incessant torrents of fire which the infuriated Jews showered upon them. But a singular proof of the sagacity and re- searches of the ancients is, that the modern application of alum to render wood incombustible was also known ; for Archelaus, one of the generals of Mithridates in a war with the Romans, "washed over a wooden tower with a solution of it and thereby defeated all the attempts of Sylla to set the structure on fire. Thus we see that when mechanical means failed them, or were not at hand, they had recourse to chemical ones. But that water and machines for dispersing it, were extensively employed on such occasions appears from a remark of Vitruvius. He observes that the lower stories of the towers contained large quantities of water for the purpose of extinguishing fire thrown upon them. Of course they had means of S 'ejecting it wherever required, but of these unfortunately he is silent, ontfaucon has engraved a figure of a species of wheel for the purpose, but its representation is too imperfect to indicate the nature of the ma- chine of which it seems to have formed a part. That machines of the pump kind were used on these occasions is evi- dent from the temporary contrivance of Apollodorus, mentioned in the re- mains of a work of his On War Machines, and quoted by Professor Beck- man. We have noticed, at page 235, one of his plans for extinguishing fire in the upper parts of a building, and that to which we now refer is from the same passage. Water, he observes, may be conveyed to elevated 'places when exposed to Jiery darts, by means of the entrails of an ox : these natural tubes being connected to a bag filled with water ; by com- pressing the bag the liquid will be forced through them to its place of destination. This device, he says, may be adopted when the machine called SIPHO is not at hand. Now if we had not known that the term sipho was anciently used to designate syringes and other tubular instru- ments, the substitute which Apollodorus here proposes sufficiently proves that it was a forcing pump to which he refers, and one too that, like our fire-engines, was furnished with leathern hose through which the water was conveyed to the " elevated places" he mentions. The importance of flexible pipes accompanying the pump or sipho, when employed in war, is obvious; for one of the objects of those who threw "fiery darts" on the towers and other structures, was to fire them, if possible, at places inac- cessible to water for the most difficult to be reached — hence the necessity not only of engines, to project streams of that liquid, but also of such tubes to direct it to the places inflamed : and hence the suggestion of the tubes mentioned by Apollodorus when artificial ones were not to be procured : an ox was always within the reach of an army. As these engines would of course be similar to such as were used to Chap. 7.] Fire-Engine described by Heron. 305 extinguish fires in cities in times of peace, it is to be regretted that neither Apollodorus nor Vitruvius has described them : perhaps they were too common to have been thought worthy of particular notice. In the design and execution of their essential parts, they were probably equal to our best engines. Some persons may doubt this, but it should be remembered that the nature of ancient wars naturally led to the best construction of all mi- litary machinery ; and of defensive apparatus, engines to extinguish Jire could not have been the least important, when that element was univer- sally employed. The contests of the ancients were often those of mecha- nical skill rather than of fighting — conflicts of talent in engineering than in generalship ; hence the ingenuity displayed in their machinery and the wonders wrought by it. Archimedes, by superior machines, protected Syracuse for eight months against all the efforts of the legions of Marcelluf and the Roman engineers. The successes of Demetrius and Hannibal were often due to the novelty of their engines : the Carthagenian machin- ists were indeed proverbially skilful, so much so, that in Rome itself any curious piece of mechanism was, by way of eminence, named punic. An- cient armies were also often employed in obtaining, raising and cutting off water ; the hydraulic engines of Ganymede nearly ruined Cassar and his army in Alexandria, Cyrus took Babylon by diverting the course of the Euphrates, &c. The frequent use of hydraulic engines in war either to extinguish fires or for other purposes, would naturally lead to skill in mak- ing as well as in using them. No. 141. Egyptian Fire-Eugine of the 2d century before Christ, from Heron's Spiritalia. That the idea of employing forcing pumps as fire-engines was not new in the time of Apollodorus or Vitruvius, we have conclusive evidence. Among the small number of ancient writings that escaped destruction in those dark and turbulent ages that intervened between the decline of the Roman power and the introduction of printing into Europe, was a Greek manuscript, containing an account of various devices for the application of water, and among them an engine for extinguishing fires. This small work was illustrated with figures, like the original work of Vitruvius. Several Latin translations were made and published in the 16th and 17th 39 306 Fire-Engine described by Heron. [Book III. centuries, and most of them were ornamented with copies of the original illustrations. This was the Spiritalia of Heron, to which we have already referred, (page 270.) As the engine may interest some readers, a figure of it is annexed. See No. 141 on the preceding page. To persons not familiar with hydraulic machinery this figure will ap- pear a rude and imperfect affair ; but notwithstanding its antiquity and the mutilations which it has unquestionably sustained in passing through the hands of copyists, it exhibits nearly all the essential elements of a modern engine. Like the machine of Ctesibius, Heron's engine consists of two brass forcing pumps connected to one discharging pipe. The cylinders are secured to a base of wood and are partly immersed in water ; they are described in the text as turned or bored very smooth, with pistons ac- curately fitted to work in them. The piston rods are attached by bolts to a double lever at equal distances from the centre or fulcrum at A. The carriage not being necessary to elucidate the principle of the machine was omitted by Heron. The rectangular figure into which the upper part of the discharging pipe is formed, has certainly been added by some trans- criber of the manuscript. Neither Heron nor his contemporaries could have made such an obstacle to the issuing fluid, and nothing of the kind is mentioned in the text. There is, moreover, conclusive evidence that the figure has been altered ; for example, there is no provision represented by which the direction of the perpendicular jet can be changed, and hence an engine made according to it, would, on this account alone, be useless ; now Heron not only describes a movable tube, fitted by a joint (goose neck) to the perpendicular one, by turning of which the water could be discharged on any given place, but he refers his readers to the figure of it in the illustration. Had Heron's machine an air chamber ? This is an interesting question, since if it were determined in the affirmative, there would be little left for the moderns to claim in fire-engines except details in the construction of the carriages and other matters of minor importance, that have been left unnoticed in the Spiritalia. The accounts of machines by ancient au- thors are generally very concise ; they did not think it necessary to enter into that minutise of narration that characterizes the specifications of modern patents, nor would it have been of much use to us if they had, but the contrary, for the multiplicity of mere technical terms would rather have increased than removed our embarrassments. This is evident from the variety of explanations given of a few such terms that Vitruvius employs in describing some of the inventions of Ctesibius and other mechanicians : hence in all the accounts of ancient machinery, it was of more importance to preserve the figures or illustrations than the text from corruption. The description of Heron's engine which the text and the figure afford, is, to persons conversant with such machines, sufficiently explicit, with the exception of that part of both which relates to the discharging pipe and apparatus connected to it — or in other words, to the air vessel, for that there was one, we think every intelligent reader will presently admit. Had the figure been always exactly copied by the multipliers of manu- scripts, of course no obscurity would here have been felt, but even in the state in which it fyas reached us, an air vessel is certainly portrayed. It may be asked, If this be so, why was it not discovered before ] Possibly because no one sought particularly for it : its diminutive size and general resemblance to a plain tube would prevent any one else from recognizing it. It will be seen in the figure that one part of the discharging pipe descends into an enlarged portion of that below it, and that a space is left between them ; thus constituting an air chamber, and precisely of the same Chap. 7.] Greek Fire projected by Pumps. 307 plan as those generally used in engines at this day. This part of the figure (and this alone) in Commandine's translation of the Spiritalia is not shown in section, but the arrangement of the pipes is precisely as shown in the cut. Now this addition to the discharging pipe could not have been made in the 16th century, when the work fell into the hands of printers and en- gravers, for at that time the use of it was not known, while from the small dimensions figured it could have been of no service. That it originated with Heron and formed a prominent feature in the original figure, is evi- dent from the text : when speaking of the escape of the water from this part of the machine, he expressly states that it was forced out, in the same manner as out of a vase or fountain, which he had previously described, l>ij means of compressed air — ' per aerem in ipso compressum.'* Nothing can be plainer than this ; for every manufacturer of pumps knows that in the absence of an air vessel there could have been no air to compress. It is an interesting circumstance in the history of this ancient engine that the air vessei should have been preserved through so many ages when its use was not known. While its size was diminished its form was re- tained. It is no wonder that the old copyists considered it an unsightly and unnecessary enlargement of the discharging pipe, and hence they re- duced it accordingly — certainly the fancy that could add the rectangular twist to the upper part, would not hesitate to remove the supposed defor- mity from the lower one. Some persons, deceived by the imperfect re- presentation, have supposed that such engines were not used in the time of Heron, and that the figure and description were inserted in his work as mere hints for future mechanicians to improve on ; but the description sufficiently indicates that similar machines were in actual use.b The ma- terials and workmanship of the pumps — metallic pistons and spindle valves, with guards to prevent the latter from opening too far ; the mode of form- ing the goose-neck by a kind of swivel joint, somewhat like the union or coupling screw ; the application of an air vessel ; two pumps forcing water through one pipe, and both worked by a double lever, are proofs that the machine described by Heron was neither an ideal one, nor of recent origin or use. There are features in it that were very slowly developed by manufacturers in modern times. It is not at all improbable that an- cient engines were equal in effect to the best of ours ; but, whether they were or not, one thing is certain, that to the ancients belongs the merit of discovering the principles employed in these machines and of applying them to practice. It is remarkable too, that fire engines made their first appearance in Egypt, thus adding another to the numerous obligations under which that wonderful country has placed civilized nations in all times to come. Having noticed the use of pumps to extinguish fires in ancient warfare, we may remark that they were also employed in the middle ages, if not before, to promote conflagrations, viz: to lanch streams of Greek fcre. This mysterious substance is represented* as a liquid : Beckman says it cer- tainly was one ; and so far from being quenched, its violence was aug- mented by contact with water. It was principally employed in naval combats, being enclosed in jars that were thrown into the hostile vessels. It was also blown through iron and copper tubes planted on the prows of galleys and fancifully shaped like the mouths of animals, which seemed to vomit streams of liquid fire. There is among the figures of war machines in the old German translation of Vegetius already mentioned, one that * Spiritalia, p. 70. b Siphones autem quibus utuntur ad incendia hoc modo construuntur. — Ibid. 308 Warriors the greatest Incendiaries. [Book III. (judging from the flames issuing from monstrous animals' mouths) seems to have been designed for projecting Greek fire, though it is difficult to per- ceive how it was done. Another mode of using this terrible material, was by forcing it in jets " by means of large fire-engines," and sometimes " the soldiers squirted it from hand engines." Its effects upon those on whom it was thrown, seem to have been somewhat similar to those pro- duced by the composition of alcohol and spirits of turpentine recently adopt- ed as a substitute for oil in lamps, and which has occasioned so many fatal disasters, by the explosion of vessels containing it and its consequent dis- persion over the persons of the sufferers. It was easy (says Beckman) to conceive the iaea of discharging Greek fire by means of forcing pumps, because the application of them to extinguish fires was known long before its invention. It is supposed to have originated with Callinicus, a Syrian engineer of Balbec, in the 7th century. It may however have been known to the old Greeks and Romans, for they made use of similar devices for projecting fire : Montfaucon, in describing their marine combats, observes " another mode of annoying enemies' ships was by throwing fire therein, which they did after different ways, some using for that purpose siphones, and fire buckets, others threw in pots filled with fire." From an expres- sion of Dr. G. A. Agricola, a physician of Ratisbon of the last century, in a work on Gardening, (see page 127 in Bradley's translation) it would ap- pear as if something like the Greek fire was then in use. Enumerating several pernicious inventions, he notices " That infernal one of gunpowder. How many cities and fortresses has it ruined '£ How many thousands of men has it destroyed ] And what is most deplorable is, that this art grows more and more complete every day, and is brought to that perfection, that in Holland and some other parts they have FIRE PUMPS filled with burning compositions, wherewith they eject fiery torrents to a great distance, which may occasion dreadful and irreparable damages to mankind." Fires and wars have ever been deemed the most awful of earthly cala- mities, and, unfortunately for our race, they have too often been united, for warriors have generally had recourse to the former to multiply the mi- series of the latter ; and in almost every age cities have, like Jericho and Ai, Hebron and Ziglag, Troy and Thebes, Carthage and Athens, Sagun- tum and Bagdat, been burnt with fire ; and in some cases " all the souls therein destroyed" — "cities burned without inhabitants." It was, we be lieve, from the horrible, the inconceivable sufferings endured on such oc- casions, that much of the thrilling imagery of the Bible was derived. To the offending Jews, God was represented as "a consuming fire," and they were urged to repentance " lest his fury come forth like fire, and burn, that none can quench it — lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and there be none to quench it in Bethel ;" and some of the sublimest ef- fusions of the prophets have reference to " firebrands, arrows and death" — to " blood and fire and pillars of smoke." In modern times, too, war- riors have been the greatest incendiaries : hamlets, towns and cities have been wantonly consumed, and the " gallant" actors have made the air shiver with their shouts of acclamation on witnessing the spreading con- flagration. Well did the ancients represent Mars fierce in aspect, bran- dishing a spear, and driving in his chariot o'er mangled corses, amid the clangor of arms and the shrieks of the dying — Fear, Terror and Discord in his train, while before went Bellona, with her hair loose and clotted with gore, and a firebrand in her hand. And these are the demons that men professing Christianity worship with all the fervor of deluded hea- then ; and, what will in future times appear incredible, they demand re- verence for the act, and they — receive it ! Strange, that notwithstanding Chap. 7.J Roman Firemen. 309 the boasted superiority of the age and the benign spirit and predepts of religion — the profession of war — the most prolific source of human misery and crime, is still deemed honorable ; and men under whose tyranny na- tions and provinces groan, and by whom human life is extinguished not only without remorse but with indifference, are permitted to take prece- dence in moral society. Crates was certainly correct when he intimated that wars would never cease till men became convinced of the folly and wickedness of allowing themselves to be driven as soldiers like sheep to the slaughter, or like wolves to devour each other — but as he expressed it, not till men become sensible that generals are only ass drivers. As Greek fire preceded gunpowder in Europe, so pumps or the ' spout- in^ engines' for projecting it may be considered the forerunners of guns: it is even possible that the first idea of the latter (supposing they were not introduced from the east) might have been derived from accidental explo- sions of the liquid in the pump cylinders, when the pistons would of course be driven out of them like balls out of cannon. But be this as it may, enough has been adduced to show that the forcing pump and its modifica- tions have exerted no small degree of influence in ancient wars and con- sequently in the affairs of the old world. Although the police and other arrangements for the actual suppression of fires in ancient Rome are not well ascertained, some interesting particu- lars are known. A body of firemen, named matricularii, was established whose duty it was to extinguish the flames. Similar companies were also organized in provincial cities. This appears from Trajan's reply to Pliny respecting the formation of one in Nicomedia, and from which we learn that these ancient firemen frequently created disturbances by their dissen- tions and tumults. Pliny (the younger) was governor of Bithynia ; after giving the emperor an account of a fire in Nicomedia, a town in his pro- vince, he continues, " You will consider, sir, whether it may not be ad- visable to form a company of firemen, consisting only of one hundred and fifty members. I will take care none but those of that business shall be admitted into it ; and that the privileges granted them shall not be ex- tended to any other purpose. As this corporate body will be restricted to so small a number of members, it will be easy to keep them under proper regulations." In answer the emperor sent the following letter : " TRAJAN TO PLINY. — You are of opinion it would be proper to establish a company of firemen in Nicomedia, agreeably to what has been prac- ticed in several other cities. But it is to be remembered that societies of this sort have greatly disturbed the peace of the province in general, and of those cities in particular. Whatever name we give them, and for what- ever purpose they may be instituted, they will not fail to form themselves into factious assemblies, however short their meetings may be. It will therefore be safer to provide such machines as are of service in extin- guishing fires, enjoining the owners of houses to assist in preventing the mischief from spreading, and, if it should be necessary, to call in the aid of the populace." Pliny's Letters, B. x. Ep. 42 and 43. Melmoth's Translation. The direction to procure " machines as are of service in extinguishing fires" was in consequence of Nicomedia being destitute of them — an un- fortunate circumstance for the inhabitants, but one that is hardly now re- gretted by those who are in search of information respecting fire-engines among the ancients ; since it led Pliny to mention them, and thereby af- ford us a proof of their employment by the Romans. " While I was mak- ing a progress [he writes to Trajan] in a different part of the province, a most destructive fire broke out in Nicomedia, which not only consumed 310 Fire-Engines and Fires in Ancient Rome. [Book III several private houses, but also two public buildings, the town house and the temple of Isis, though they stood on contrary sides of the street. The occasion of its spreading thus wide was partly owing to the violence ol the wind, and partly to the indolence of the people, who, it appears, stood fixed and idle spectators of this terrible calamity. The truth is, the city was not furnished with either engines, buckets, or any single instrument proper to extinguish fires ; which I have now however given directions to be provided." It has been generally imagined [observes Melmoth] that the ancients had not the art of raising water by engines, but this pas- sage seems to favor the contrary opinion. The word in the original [for engine] is sipko, which Hesychius explains instrumentum adjaculan- dus aquas adversus incendia — an instrument to throw up water against fires. But there is a passage in Seneca which seems to put the matter beyond conjecture, though none of the critics upon this place have taken notice of it. Solemus (says he) duabus manibus inter se junctus aquarn concipere et compressa utrinque palma in modum siphonis exprimere. Q. N. ii, 16, where we plainly see the use of this sipho was to throw up water. In the French translation of De Sacy, (Paris 1809,) the word is rendered pumps : — " D'ailleurs, il n'y a dans la ville, ni pompes ni seaux publics, enfin nul autre des instrumens necessaires pour eteindre les em- brasemens." And Professor Beckman quotes both Hesychius and Isidore to prove that " a fire-engine, properly so called, was understood in the 4th and in the 7th centuries by the term sipho,'" and we may add that Agri- cola in the 16th century designated syringes for extinguishing fires by the same term. Heron's engine is also named a siphon. See note p. 307. From an expression in the letter of Pliny just quoted, we learn that men were regularly brought up to the art of extinguishing fires, the same as to any other profession : Of the company that he proposed to estab- lish, he remarks, " I will take care that none but those of that business shall be admitted into it." The buildings in ancient Rome were very high, the upper stories were mostly of wood, and the streets and lanes were extremely narrow, hence the suppression of conflagrations there must have been an arduous business, and one that required extraordinary intrepidity and skill ; qualifications that could only be obtained by expe- rience. Besides engines for throwing water, the firemen used sponges or mops fixed to the end of long poles, and they had grapples and other instruments by means of which they could go from one wall to another, (Encyc. Antiq.) Of the great elevation of the houses several Roman writers speak. Seneca attributed the difficulty of extinguishing fires to this cause. Juvenal mentions Roofs that make one giddy to look down. Sat. vi. When the city was rebuilt after the great conflagration, (supposed to have been induced by Nero,) the height of the houses was fixed at about seventy feet. These were raised to a certain height without wood, being arched with stone, and party walls were not allowed. That fires were constantly occurring in old Rome is well known. Juvenal repeatedly mentions the fact : Thus in his third satire : — Rome, where one hears the everlasting sound Of beams and rafters thundering to the ground, Amid alarms by day and fears by night. And again : But lo ! the flames bring yonder mansion down ! The dire disaster echoes through the town ; Men look as if for solemn funeral clad. Now, now indeed these nightly fires are sad. Chap. 7.] Portable Engines in Roman Houses. 311 Their frequency induced Augustus to institute a body of watchmen to guard against them, and, from the following lines of Juvenal, it appears that wealthy patricians had servants to watch their houses during the night: With buckets ranged the ready servants stand, Alert at midnight by their lords' command. Sat. xiv. As every calamity that befalls mankind is converted by some men to their own advantage, so the numerous fires in Rome led to the detestable practice of speculating on the distresses they occasioned. Thus Crassus, the consul, who, from his opulence was surnamed the Rich, gleaned his immense wealth, according to Plutarch " from war and from fires ; he made it a part, of his business to buy houses that were on fire, and others that joined upon them, which he commonly got at a low price on account of the fear and distress of the owners about the event." But the avarice of Crassus, as is the case with thousands of other men, led to his ruin. With the hope of enlarging his possessions, he selected the province of Syria for his government, or rather for his extortion, because it seemed to promise him an inexhaustible source of wealth : but by a retributive Provi- dence his army was overthrown by the Parthians, whom he attempted to subdue, and who cut off his head, and in reference to his passion for gold fused a quantity of that metal and poured it down his throat. Among other precautions for preventing fires from spreading that were adopted in Rome on rebuilding the city, was one requiring every citizen to keep in his house " a machine for extinguishing fire." What these ma- chines were is not quite certain, whether buckets, mops, hooks, syringes or portable pumps. That they were the last is supposed to be proved by a passage in the writings of Ulpian, a celebrated lawyer and secretary to the Emperor Alexander Severus, wherein he enumerates the things that belonged to a house when it was sold, such as we name fixtures, and among them he mentions SIPHONES employed in extinguishing fires. Beckman thinks the leaden pipes which conveyed water into the houses for domestic purposes might be intended ; but they would hardly have been designated as above, merely because the water conveyed through them was occasionally used to put out fires. This was not their chief use, but an incidental one. That they were pumps or real fire-engines was the opinion of Alexander ab Alexandro, a learned lawyer of the 15th century ; an opinion not only rendered probable by the terms used and the necessity of such implements for the security of the upper stories, which neither public engines nor streams from the aqueducts could reach, but also from the apparent fact, that syringes or portable pumps have al- ways been kept (to a greater or less extent) in dwellings from Roman times. And a sufficient reason why they should generally be sold with the houses, might be found in their dimensions being regulated according to those of the buildings for which they were designed. The population of Rome was so great that the area of the city could not furnish sites sufficient for the houses ; and hence (as Vitruvius has ob- served, B. ii, cap. 8) the height of the walls was increased in order to multiply the number of stories — ' for want of room on the earth the build- ings were extended towards the heavens.' Portable fire-engines were therefore particularly requisite, in order promptly to extinguish fires on their first appearance, whether in the upper or lower floors. In the latter case, when this was not done, the people in the higher stories would be cut off from relief and the means of escape. Were some of our six and seven story buildings in the narrow streets, densely filled with human beings, and a raging fire suddenly to burst out on the ground floors, tho 312 Fire-Engines forgotten in the Middle Ages. [Book III. probability is that many lives would be lost, notwithstanding the great number of our public engines, and hose and ladder companies. Juvenal intimates the distressed situation of those dwelling above under such circumstances. Hark ! where Ucalegon for water cries Casts out his chattels, from the peril flies, Dense smoke is bursting from the floor bdow. Sat. iii. However perfect or imperfect hydraulic and hydro-pneumatic engines in ancient Alexandria and Rome may have been, it is certain that these machines and the arts related to them experienced the withering influ- ence" of that moral and mental desolation which raged throughout Europe during the dark ages. The decline of learning was necessarily accom- panied with a corresponding decay in all the useful and ornamental arts : some of these have disappeared altogether, and have never been recover- ed, so that the attainments of the ancients in them have perished. But the connection between literature and the arts was as apparent in their resto- ration as in their declension — if they departed together they also returned in company. The revival of learning not only led to the introduction of printing and the invention of the press, but it furnished, in the multiplica- tion of ancient manuscripts, then extant, immediate employment for both ; and although it may be supposed that there can be little or no relation be tween Greek or Latin manuscripts and modern fire-engines, yet there really is an intimate one, for it is all but certain that the first idea of these machines as now made, was derived from Heron's Spiritalia ; just as the application of double and treble forcing pumps in modern water-works, was from Vitruvius' treatise on architecture. The printing press, there- fore, not only opened the literary treasures of the ancients to the world at large, which had previously been confined to a few, but at the same time it made us acquainted with some of their machinery and their arts, that had long been forgotten or lost sight of. Fire-engines were nearly or altogether forgotten in the middle ages : portable syringes seem to have been the only contrivances, except buckets, for throwing water on fires, and from their inefficiency and other causes, their employment was very limited. The general ignorance which then pervaded Europe not only prevented the establishment of manufactories of better instruments; but the superstitions of the times actually discouraged their use. There is not a more singular fact (and it is an incontrovertible one) in the history of the human mind, than that the religious doctrines and opinions of a large portion of mankind should have in every age produced the most deplorable results with regard to conflagrations. The Parsees, Ghebres, &c. of Asia, and other religious sects, which have sub- sisted from the remotest ages, never willingly throw water upon fires — they consider it criminal to quench it, no matter how disastrous the result may be : they had rather perish in it than thus extinguish the emblem of the Deity they worship. " They would sooner be persuaded to pour on oyl to increase, than water to assuage the flame. "a Among such people fire- engines of course were never used. Another and a larger part of the human race though they entertain no such reverence for fire, are so far influenced by the pernicious doctrine of Fatalism, as to make little or no efforts to suppress it. They look upon fires as the act of God ! deter- mined by him ! and therefore conclude it useless to contend with him, in attempting to extinguish those which HE has kindled ! Hence the pro- verbial indifference of Mahommedans in the midst of conflagrations. What » Ovington's Voyages to Surat in 1689, page 372. Chap. 7.] Bells used as Substitutes for Fire-engines. 313 Torccn has said of Surat in particular, is applicable to every city of Asia and of the East. " Many fine buildings have been destroyed by fire, which, according to the Mahommedan doctrine of predestination, it is in vain to withstand." Of the Chinese, by far the shrewdest of Asiatics, Mr. Davis remarks, " The foolish notion of fatalism which prevails among the people, makes them singularly careless as regards fire ; and the frequent, occurrence of accidents, has no effect upon them, although the fearful con- flagration of 1822, went far to destroy the whole city," (Canton.) The miserable delusions which ecclesiastics established in Europe during the middle ages were quite as preposterous, and equally effective in par- alizing the energies of the people. It is difficult to reflect on them without feeling emotions of wonder as well as pity, at the wretched condition of our race when void of knowledge ; and of gratitude, that in our times the shackles of ignorance and superstition are rapidly rusting away. It was a common belief that fires (and various other calamities) were induced by wicked spirits, and that the best mode of removing the evils was by driv- ing the authors of them away ! These intangible workers of mischief, according to the demonologists of the times, consisted of numerous classes, and the labors of each were confined to certain elements. It was those who roamed in the air that were the greatest incendiaries. " Aeriall spirits, or divells, are such as keep quarter most part in the aire [they] cause many tempests, thunder and lightnings, teare Odkes,jire steeples, houses" &c. (See Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.) When a house, therefore, was on fire, the priests, instead of stimulating by their exam- ple the bystanders to exert themselves in obtaining water, &c. had re- course to the images and pretended relics of saints, which they brought out of the churches, in order to exert their influence in stopping the pro- gress of the flames, and expelling the invisible authors of them. The pall, or sacred covering of the altar, was also frequently carried in procession, to contribute to the overthrow of the fiends. But when a church itself took fire, (such was the ignorance of the times,) the people then heartily blasphemed the sairit to whom it was dedicated, for not preventing the mischief; (Encyc. Antiq.) like Sylla abusing the image of Apollo when he was defeated in battle. Other curious but popular substitutes for water and fire-engines, were church Bells: these were consecrated with imposing ceremonies. They were washed inside and out with holy water — perfumed with censers — anointed with sacred oil — named and signed with the cross, that devils (says the ritual) " hearing this bell may tremble and flee from the banner of the cross designed upon it." Besides striking demons with horror and driving them from the vicinity, these bells had the wonderful power of allaying storms, tempests, thunder and lightning, and extinguishing fires ; and some of them had the rare gift of ringing on important occasions of their own accord.* M. Arago, in a paper on Thunder and Lightning, inquires (among other alledged means of dissipating thunder clouds) into this old superstition of " Ringing of Bells ;" and he cites specimens of prayers, sttll offered up, on their consecration, according to the Paris Ritual, " O eternal Grod ! grant that the sound of this Bell may put to flight the fire strokes of the enemy of man, the thunder bolt, the rapid fall of stones, as well as all disasters and tempests." In the " Golden Legend" of Wynken de Worde, the old English printer, it is said " the evil spirytes that ben in the region of th* ayre, doubte moche when they here the Belles ringen : a See a particular account of the ceremonies of consecrating bells as witnessed by the author of " Observations on a Journey to Naples." Lon. 1691. 40 314 Ancient Apparatus for Extinguishing Fires, [Book III. and this is the cause why the Belles ringen whan it thondreth, and whan grete tempeste and rages of wether happen, to the end that the feinds and wycked spirytes should ben abashed and flee, and cease of the movynge of tempeste." The following lines to the same effect, are from Barnaby G-ooge, an old British poet : If that the thunder chaunce to rore, And stormie tempestes shake, ****** The clarke doth all the belles forthwith At once in steeple ring : With wondrous sound and deeper farre Than he was wont before, Till in the loftie heavens darke, The thunder bray no more, For in these christned belles they thinke Doth lie such powre and might As able is the lempeste great, And storme to vanquish quight. The application of bells to the purposes of fire-engines is also mentioned by Peter Martyr, in his " Common Places," a work dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. Black letter, 1583. Speaking of things consecrated by pa- pists in common with the ancient heathen, he says of bells — " they be washed, they be annointed, they be conjured, they are named and handled with far greater pomp and ambition, than men are when they are bap- tized, and more is attributed to them than to the prayers of godly men. For they say, that by the ringing of them — the wicked spirits, the host of adversaries, the laying await of enemies, tempestes, hayle, stormes, whirl- windes, violent blastes and hurtfull thunderclaps, are driven away, FLAMES and FIRES are extinguished, and finally whatever else soever !" Part iv, cap. 9, p. 125. There is no small ringing of bells in this city (New- York) during fires; but their unaided effects on the devouring element, ere other means have arrived, has, we believe, been but small. Few have, however, been con- secrated ; but as from one to two hundred Spanish bells have recently been sold here, (having been taken from the convents in consequence of the civil war which has so long raged in that country,) this virtue of sacred bells may soon be tested. Certainly, if they can do a moiety of the good things mentioned above, they were worth much more than forty cents per Ib. the average price at which they were sold. We have had recourse in a few instances to heraldry, or rather to the emblems or personal devices of ancient families, for information respecting machines, some of which are no longer in use ; as the eolipile, and the atmospheric sprinkling pot : see pages 261 and 396. Besides these the syringe and the bellows have also been adopted on such occasions ; and it may be here observed that the device of Galeaz, duke of Milan, the second of the name, was a brand burning and two fire buckets.0 This, although no proof that machines of the pump kind were not in use to extinguish fires in Italy during the 15th century, is an indication that none were employed at the time when the device was adopted. The oldest sketch of a complete set of apparatus for extinguishing fire that we have seen, is in a cut representing the interior of a laboratory or smelting furnace, in the De Re Metallica of Agricola, page 308. The implements are, a syringe, a sledge hammer, two fire hooks and three leathern buckets ; conveniently arranged against a wall. See the annexed illustration. These figures seem to have escaped the notice of Beckman a Devices Hero'iques. A Lyon. 1577, page 50. Chap. 7.] From Agricola. 315 and subsequent authors, nor is this surprising1 since they form a very small and obscure part of the original engraving. We noticed the latter several times before observing them. The syringe was made of brass ; it is de- signated sipliunculus ori- chalceus, cujus usus est in incendiis. In these figures we behold aR that was preserved through the middle ages of ancient firemen's machinery : the engine of Heron seems to have been quite forgotten. Indeed the syringe itself was not generally used in Europe till late, for it was not till the close of the 16th century that "hand squirts," as they were named, were introduced into London. Previous to that time watchmen, buck- ets, hooks and ladders, on- 142. Firemen', Apparatus from Agricola. jy were jn uge< Cuttmg away with axes and throwing water from buckets are mentioned (observes Fosbroke) by Petronius and Gervase of Canterbury. The owners of houses or chimneys that took fire were fined; and men were appointed to watch for fires and give the alarm. In 1472 a night bellman was em- ployed in Exeter to alarm the inhabitants in case of fire, and in 1558, leathern buckets, ladders and crooks, were ordered to be provided for the same city; no application of the pump seems to have been then thought of. Syringes continued to be used in London till the latter part of the 17th century, when they were superseded by more perfect machines. An ac- count of them and the mode of working them would make a modern fire- man smile. They were usually made of brass and held from two to four quarts. The smaller ones were about two feet and a half long, and an inch and a half in diameter ; the bore of the nozzles being half an inch. Three men were required to work each, which they achieved in this man- ner : two, one on each side, grasped the cylinder with one hand and the nozzle with the other ; while the third one worked the piston ! Those who held the instrument plunged the nozzle into a vessel of water, the operator then drew back the piston and thus charged the cylinder, and when it was raised by the bearers and in the required position, he pushed in the piston and forced, or rather endeavoured to force, the contents on the fire. We are told that some of these syringes are preserved in one or two of the parish churches. It can excite no surprise that London should have been almost wholly destroyed in the great fire of 1666, when such were the machines upon which the inhabitants chiefly depended for protecting their property and dwellings. If the diminutive size of these instruments be considered, the number of hands required to work each, beside others to carry water and vessels for them, the difficulty and often impossibility of approaching sufficiently near so as to reach the flames with the jet, the loss of part of the stream at the beginning and end of each stroke of the piston, and the trifling effect produced — the whole act of using them, appears rather as a farce, or the gambols of overgrow^ 316 Turkish Fire-Engines. [Book III. boys at play, than the well directed energies of men to subdue the raging element. In Asia syringes have probably been always in limited use. They are the only instruments of the pump kind now known there, if China be ex- cepted. Very effective engines on the European plan are made by the Chinese. (Chinese Repos. vol. iv.) The fire-engine of the Turks is an improvement on the syringe, but not much more effective. The author of " Sketches of Turkey" observes, when speaking of fires in Constantinople, " Indeed, when we afterwards saw the machines used by the Turks to extinguish fires, we were not sur- prised at the feeble resistance which they could oppose to the progress of the devouring element. The engines, in fact, are not larger than those employed with us to water gardens : they have but a single chamber, which is about eight inches long by three or four in diameter ; they are readily carried about by hand." Commodore Porter, in his interesting account of "Constantinople and its Environs," says their fire-engines "are like those we use in our gardens, for watering the beds and walks, and de- liver about as much water as a good large syringe. When an alarm of fire is given, a man seizes on one of these and runs to the spot indicated, with the engine on his shoulder, another brings a skin of water, pours it into the reservoir and they pump away." A characteristic anecdote is thus facetiously related by Commodore Porter. " They had heard of the fire- engines and fire companies of the United States — how half a shingle could be burnt, and the engines save the other half from the flames. They could not understand it. Mr. Eckford fortunately arrived with his beautiful ship, having one of our engines on board, requiring some twenty men to work it. The Capudan Pacha heard of it — ' Mash Allah ! let us see it,' exclaimed the old man. The engine was brought on shore and placed in the Navy Yard ; a short suction was fixed to it and put into the Bospho- rus; men were set to work it — the Navy Yard was soon inundated, and the Bosphorus began to run dry ! ' Mash Allah !' said he, ' very good — but it will require a sea to supply it with water. It won't do for us, for there is no sea in the middle of the city.' They therefore have thought best to stick to their squirts, and to let the fire spread until the wind changes, or it is tired of burning." Sandys, in the beginning of the 17th century, visited Constantinople, and speaks of the frequency of fires in that city : he observes, " It is not to be marvelled at, for the citizens dare not quench the fire that burneth their own houses, because officers are appointed for that purpose." He is si- lent respecting the instruments then used. When the useful arts began to excite attention, the defects of portable syringes were too apparent to be neglected, hence in the early part of the 16th century several attempts were made to remedy them, by those no- ble spirits who burst through the prejudice that had so long consigned the subjects of practical mechanics to the mere makers of machines, as one unworthy of a philosopher's pursuit; and from the cultivation of which no distinction, save such as was allied to that of a skilful artisan, could be derived — a species of fame from which professors of philosophy shrunk, like Plato, with feelings of horror. To render the syringe an efficient fire- engine, would seem to be impossible, except by converting it into a forc- ing pump, and in that case it would be no longer a syringe. As long, therefore, as such an idea did not occur to engineers, they had no resource but to improve the " squirt" as well as they could ; and however hope- less the task may now appear, it was not only attempted, but to a certain extent accomplished, and with considerable ingenuity too, as will appear Chap. 7.J Syringe Engine from Besson. sr from the following figure, No. 143. It is described in Besson's " Thea- tre," and must therefore have been invented previous to 1568, the date of the permission to print his work. No. 143. Syringe Engine from Besson. A. D. 1568. " Proposition De UAutheur : — Artifice autant singulier (comme je •' pense) que non point commun, pour jecter 1'eau centre un grand feu, " mesmement lors que pour la grandeur de la flamme, nul ne peut entrer " ny approcher de la maison qui brusle. Declaration de la mesme figure : " Cest instrument, qui est faict en forme de Cone, se soustient sur deux " Roues : ayant sa bouche tournee vers le septentrion : et aupres de sa " base il y a des demi cercles, qui servent a 1'hausser, au baisser, d'avan- " tage vers sa dicte bouche septentrionale est un Entonnoir, pour y verser " 1'eau dedans : et en sa base, ou bien partie meridionale, est une vis, dont " est pousse dedans et recule un Baston auquel sont des Estouppes, ainsi " qu'aux siringues. Le reste appert." In reading the above, it should be remembered that letters of reference to designate the .different parts of machines were not then in general use, but the sides and' angles of the pages were marked with various points of the compass ; and particular parts pointed out by their position with re- gard to these, and by the intersection of lines drawn between them. In this engine several defects of the " hand squirts" are avoided ; as the ne- cessity of inverting the instrument to refill it by plunging the nozzle into the vessel of water, the small quantity contained in the former, and the consequently incessant repetition of the operation and interruption of the jet, and the difficulty of directing it on the flames with certainty or preci- sion. Besson, (if he was the inventor,) therefore, greatly enlarged the capacity of the cylinder, making it sufficient to contain a barrel, or more ; and as a matter of necessity, placed it on a carriage. To eject the water uniformly, he moved the piston by a screw ; and when the cylinder was emptied, it was refilled through the funnel by an attendant, as the piston was drawn back by reversing the motion of the crank. When recharged, the stop cock in the pipe of the funnel was closed and the liquid forced out as before. As flexible pipes of leather, the " ball and socket" and " goose-neck" joints had not been introduced, some mode of changing the direction of the jet of this enormous syringe was necessary. To effect this, it is represented as suspended on pivots, which rest in two upright posts : to these are secured (see figure) two semicircular straps of iron, whose centres coincide with the axis, or pivots, on which the syringe turns. A number of holes are made in each, and are so arranged as to be opposite each other. A bolt is passed through two of these, and also through a similar hole, in a piece of metal, that is firmly secured to the upper part of the open end of the cylinder ; and thus holds the latter in 318 Old German Engines. [Book III. any position required. The iron frame to which the box or female part of the screw is attached, is made fast to the cylinder ; and it is through a projecting piece on the end of this frame that the bolt is passed. By these means, any elevation could be given to the nozzle, and the syringe could be secured by passing the bolt through the piece just mentioned, and through the corresponding holes in the straps. When a lateral change in the jet was required, the whole machine was moved by a man at the end of the pole, as in the figure. To the frame, jointed feet were attach- ed, which were let down \vhen the engine was at work. The women represented (one only is given in our figure) reminds us of a remark by Fosbroke : " In the middle ages during fires women used to fetch water in brazen pails to assist." Considering the age when this engine was devised and the objects intended to be accomplished by it, it certainly has the merit of ingenuity as well as originality. Beroald says of it : " Ceste noble invention est si souvent requise, pour esteindre les grand feux desquels on ne peut approcher ; que sans faute elle merite d'estre plus au long, et plus ouvertement expliquee, afin qu'elle soit mieux en- tendue." It will be obvious to every practical mechanic that engines ot* this kind, of large dimensions, must have been at best but poor affairs. To make the piston work sufficiently accurate and tight, and to keep it so, must have been a work of no small difficulty. A correspondent, in a late number of the Lon. Mechanics' Magazine, vol. xxx, has communicated a very imperfect figure of this engine to that work, extracted from an English book, published in 1590, entitled " A Treatise named LUCARSOLACE, divided into four books, which in part are collected out of diverse authors, diverse languages, and in part devised by CYPRIAN LUCAR, Gentleman." London : 1590. It is very obvious that Lucar copied the engine in question from Besson's work, which was published in 1579, but was authorized to be printed in 1568 ; and which Besson's death then prevented. The following extract from Lucar's book is not without interest. "And here at the end of this chapter I will set before your eyes a type of a * squirt' which hath been de- vised to cast much water upon a burning house, wishing a like squirt and plenty of water to be alwaies in a readinesse where fire may do harme ; for this kind of squirt may be made to holde an hoggeshed of water, or if you will, a greater quantity thereof, and may be so placed on his frame, that with ease and a smal strength, it sahl be mounted, imbased or turned to any one side, right against any fired marke, and made to squirt out the water upon the fire that is to be quenched." The Germans were proverbially in advance of the rest of Europe in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, in almost every department of the arts. " The excellency of these people [observes Heylin in his Cosmography] lieth in the mechanic part of learning, as being eminent for many mathe- matical experiments, strange water-works, medicinal extractions, chemistry, the art of printing, and inventions of like noble nature, to the no less be- nefit than admiration of the world." As early as A. D. 1518, some kind of fire-engines were used in Augsburg, being mentioned in the building accounts of that city. They were named " instruments for fires," and " water syringes useful at fires." Their particular construction is unknown ; but from a remark in the accounts respecting wheels and poles, they are supposed to have been placed on carriages : they were probably large syringes and mounted like the one represented in the last figure. The oldest pump engines of modern times were certainly made in Ger- many, and about the close of the 16th or beginning of the next century. The first one noticed by Beckman is that of Hautsch, which the Jesuit Chap. 7.] Pump Engine from Decaus. 319 Schottus saw tried at Nuremberg in 1656. In giving an account of it, Schottus remarks that the invention was not then new, it being known in other cities, and he himself remembered having seen a small one in his native city (Konigshofen) forty years before, consequently about 1617. We are not informed by either the professor or Jesuit of the particular construction of this small engine, but there is a book extant that was pub- lished in 1615, which contains a figure and description of a German engine of that time, and which furnishes the information desired. This book is the "Forcible Movements" of Decaus, a work which, like the Theatre des Instrumens of Besson, escaped the notice of Beckman.a No. 144. German Pump Engine from Decaus. A. D. 1615. This machine is named " A rare and necessary Engin, by which you may give great reliefe to houses that are on fire :" we give the whole of the explanation : " This engin is much practiced in Germany, arid it hath been seen what great and ready help it may bring ; for although the fire be 40 foot high, the said engin shall there cast its water by help of four or five men lifting up and putting down a long handle, in form of a lever, where the handle of the pump is fastned : the said pump is easily un- derstood : there are two suckers [valves] within it, one below to open when the handle is lifted up, and to shut when it is put down ; and another to open to let out the water : and at the end of the said engin there is a man which holds the copper pipe, turning it to and again to the place where the fire shall be." In other words, this was a single forcing pump, such as figured at No. 118, and secured in a tub. For the convenience of a Of Decaus' history scarcely any thing is known — even his name is left in doubt, for he is sometimes named Isaak, at others Solomon de Cans. An account of his book may be seen in Stuart's Anecdotes of the Steam-Engine, vol. i, p. '27. But there seems to be an error in the note given of the English translation by Leak, which is stated to have been made in 1707, whereas the copy in our possession is dated nearly fifty years ear- lier. It is entitled " New and rare inventions of Water-works, shewing the easiest xvaies to raise water higher then the spring ; by which invention the perpetual motion is proposed, many hard labours performed and varieties of motions and sounds pro duced. A work both useful!, profitable and delightfull for all sorts of people : first written in French by Isaak de Caus, a late famous Engenier, and now translated into English by John Leak." London : printed by and for Joseph Moxon, 1659. 320 Engines and Squirts at the Fire of London, 1666. [Book III, transportation the whole was placed on a sled, and dragged to a fire by ropes. The bore of the forcing pipe seems to have been small compared with that of the pump cylinder, a circumstance combined with the long lever and the number of men employed in working the latter, that contri- buted to increase the elevation of the jet. This machine exhibits a de- cided improvement on the primitive syringe, and constitutes a great step towards the modern engine. In the short angular tube to which the jet pipe is attached, we behold the germ of the more valuable goose-neck. Notwithstanding the superiority of pump engines over the syringe, many years elapsed before they were generally adopted. " The English [ob- serves a British writer] appear to have been unacquainted with the pro- gress made by the German engineers ; or to have been very slow in availing themselves of their discoveries, for at the close of the 16th cen- tury " hand squirts" were first introduced in London for extinguishing fires j and it was not till the beginning of the next, that they began to place them in portable and larger reservoirs — when placed in the latter and worked by a lever, the engines thus obtained were considered a great mechanical achievement ; for when in 1633, three of them were taken to extinguish a large fire on London bridge, they were considered " such excellent things, that nothing that was ever devised could do so much good, yet none of them did prosper, for they were all broken." The ob- servation that " hand squirts" or syringes were placed in reservoirs and then worked by a lever is not strictly correct : they were small forcing pumps that were employed. A syringe could not act at all if permanently fixed in a vessel, because it discharges the water through the same orifice by which it receives it. Some improvements were made on fire-engines by Greatorix in 1656, as mentioned by Evelyn : what they were is not known. The probability is, that they related to the carriage or sled. If his engines were the same that were advertised in 1658, this was the case, for they were recommended as " more traversable in less room, and more portable than formerly used." Fosbroke's Encyc. Antiq. But the fire-engine as thus improved had still many imperfections : the water was "projected in spurts as from a syringe ; and the jet not only ceased with the stroke of the piston, but a portion of the water was in consequence lost by falling between the fire and engine at the termination of each stroke. An obvious mode of rendering the jet constant was by connecting two pumps to one discharging pipe, (as in the figure of Heron's,) and working the pistons alternately either by a double lever or two single ones. This was first adopted by the old German engineers, and thus another step was taken towards perfecting these useful instruments. In- stead of a circular tub, a square box or cistern was adopted and mounted on four solid wheels in place of a sled ; and a strainer, or false bottom, perforated with numerous small holes, was placed within the cistern to prevent gravel or dirt, thrown in with the water, from entering the pump. Such appear to have been the best fire-engines in England when the great fire in London occurred in 1666. They are referred to in the official account of the fire, dated Whitehall, September 8th, of the same year — " this lamentable fire in a short time became too big to be managed by any engines" But nothing can show their general inefficiency in a stronger light than the measures adopted by the city government the following year to guard against a similar calamity. Instead of relying upon engines, they seem to have retained their confidence in the old syringe. 1. By an act of the Common Council, the city was divided into four districts, and " each thereof was to be provided with eight hundred lea- thern buckets — fifty ladders, of different sizes, from twelve to forty-two Chap. 7.] English Engines in 163J. 321 feet in length — two brazen hand squirts to each parish — four-and-twenty pickax sledges — and forty shod shovels. 2. That each of the twelve companies provide themselves with an en- gine— thirty buckets — three ladders — six pickax sledges — and two hand squirts ; to be ready upon all occasions. And the inferior companies such •a number of small engines and buckets, as should be allotted them by the Lord Mayor and court of Aldermen. 3. That the Aldermen passed the office, of Shrievalty, do provide their several houses with four-and-twenty buckets, and one hand squirt each and those who have not served that office, twelve buckets and one liana squirt each. 4. And for the effectual supplying the engines and squirts with water, pumps were to be placed in all wells ; and fire plugs in the several main pipes belonging to the New River and Thames Water- works." Maitland. The oldest account of English fire-engines that we have seen is in a small old quarto in our possession, the title page of which is wanting. From two poetical addresses to the author, it appears that the initial let- ters of his name were I. B., and that the work was entitled " A Treatise on Art and Nature." Two thirds of it are occupied with " water-works," and the rest with "fier- works," except four or five pages "on voyces, cals, cryes and sounds ;" i. e. on making of whistles, &c. for sportsmen to imi- tate the voices of certain birds and other game. The date of publication was about 1634 : this, we infer from page 51, where, speaking of" The engin near the north end of London bridge, [he observes] which engin I circumspectly vieued as I accidentally passed by, immediately after the late fier that was upon the bridge. Anno 1G33." Shops and dwelling houses were built on both sides of the bridge at that time. After describing several modes of raising water by sucking, forcing and chain pumps, he continues : — " Having sufficiently spoken concerning mils and engins for mounting water for meer conveyance, thence we may derive divers squirts and petty engins to be drawn upon wheeles from place to place, for to quench fier among buildings ; the use whereof hath been found very commodious and profitable in cities and great townes." Hence engines were at this time not uncommon in England. No less than seven are figured by the author, and all are placed in cisterns or tubs mounted on wheels : neither air vessels nor hose pipes are described or mentioned. Five of the engines consist of single cylinders ; of these some are in a perpendicular position, others are laid horizontally, and one is inverted, and fed by a branch pipe covered by a valve. The last one figured has two horizontal cylinders, a suggestion of the author's, and the piston rods are shown as worked alternately by pallets or arms on a vertical shaft, to which a reciprocating rotary movement was imparted by pushing a horizontal lever to and fro. One of these old fire-engines is a species •of bellows pump, the construction of which we will endeavour to explain: Two brass vessels were connected at their open ends to a bag of lea- ther : they resemble, both in shape and size, two men's hats, the linings of which being pulled out and sewed together form a cylindrical bag between them. A circular opening, six or seven inches in diameter, was made through a horizontal piece of plank fixed in the cistern of the engine, and over this opening one of the vessels, with its crown upwards, was placed, and made fast by screws through the rim : the other vessel being suspended from it by the bag and hanging loosely in the water. Within the lower vessel (in the centre of its bottom) a valve opening upwards ad- mitted the water, and on the top or crown of the upper vessel, another valve, also opening upwards, was placed. Over the last valve the base of 41 322 'Extract from Harris's History of Inventers. [Book III. the jet pipe was secured. To work this machine, the rim of the lower vessel was connected at opposite points, by two iron rods or slings and a cross head, to the end of a lever, by which the lower vessel was moved up and down — compressing the bag when raised, and stretching it to its natural length when lowered; like the lantern bellows No. 105, or the bel- lows pump No. 106. To make the vessel rise and fall perpendicularly, the two rods were passed through holes in the plank. Water was kept in the cistern as high as the plank; so that when the movable vessel was raised the contents of the bag would be forced into the upper vessel and expelled through the jet pipe, and when it was again lowered, the water would enter through its valve and fill both as before. These engines, he observes, had sometimes two levers and were worked by two men, " the lower brasse [vessel] being poysed with two sweeps." The goose-neck was used in England at this time. It is not represented in the figures, which are ver^ indifferently executed, but is sufficiently well defined in the description of one of the engines. The author directs a hollow ball to be placed on the orifice of the forcing pipe, "having a [jet] pipe at the top of it, and made to screw another pipe [elbow] upon it, to direct the water to any place" Small or hand ei^gines continued to be employed in London in the 18th century. This appears from a law passed in the 6th year of Queen Anne's reign, by which it was enacted that " each parish shall keep a large en- gine, and an hand engine, and a leather ipipe, and socket of the same size as the plug or fire cock, [of the water mains,] that the socket may be put into the pipe to convey the water clear to the engine/' under a penalty of ten pounds. In case of a fire, the first person who arrived with a parish engine to extinguish it was entitled to thirty shillings — the second twenty, and the third ten, provided the engines were in good order, " with a socket or hose, or leather pipe." The following year, the owners or keepers of " other large engines/' (not parish engines,) were entitled to the same reward upon arriving with them and assisting in extinguishing a fire. It is a singular proof of the general ignorance of hydraulic machinery, or want of enterprise in London pump makers of the 16th and 17th cen- turies, that they so long continued the use of " squirts" and engines with single cylinders, when they had daily before their eyes in the Thames Water-works examples of the advantages of combining two or more to one pipe. The application also of such machines as fire-engines was ob- viously enough shown to them ; for when Maurice had finished his labors in 1582, the mayor and aldermen went to witness an experiment with his pumps at London bridge : " and they saw him throw the water over Saint Magnus's steeple, before which time [says Stow] no such thing was known in England as this raising of water." Immediately subsequent to the above date, the " squirt" manufacturers might surely have imitated Maurice's machine, but they did not for nearly a hundred years afterwards ; that is, not until such engines had been introduced a second time from Germany, and designed expressly to put out fires. Before the improvements of Newsham and his contemporaries of the 18th century, some important additions would seem to have been made in England, since, previous to 1686 " the engine for extinguishing fire" was claimed as an English invention. This is stated in a small volume pub- lished that year in London by John Harris, and apparently edited by him. It is entitled " A pleasant and compendious history of the first inventers and instituters of the most famous arts, misteries, laws, customs and manners in the whole world, together with many other rarities and re- markable things rarely made known, and never before made public : to Chap. 8.J Large Engine made by Hautscli at Nuremberg, 1656. 323 which is added several curious inventions, peculiarly attributed to Eng- land and English men." We shall offer no apology for closing this chap- ter with the following abstract, although the concluding part only refers to our subject. " Fine Spanish needles were first made in England by a Negro in Cheapside, who refused to communicate his art ; but in the eighth year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, Elias Corous, a German, made it known to the English. About the fifth year of Queen Elizabeth, the way of making pins was found out by the English, which before were brought in by strangers to the value of 60,000 pound a year. Watches were the invention of a German, and the invention brought into England Anno 1580. The famous inventers and improvers were Cornelius Van Dreble and Janus Torrianellus. The first clocks were brought into England much about the same time. Chaines for watches are said to be the invention of Mr. Tomackee. The engine for clock wheels is an English invention of about one hundred years standing, as likewise that for the speedy cutting down wheels for watches. Other late inventions there are, to whom as their inventers the English lay claime, as an engine for raising glass, an engine for spinning glass, an engine for cutting tobacco, the routing press, the art of damasking linnen, and watering of silks, the way of separating gold from silver and brass, boulting mills, making caine chairs, the curious art of colouring and marbling books, making of horn ware, and the engine to extinguish fire, and the like." CHAPTER VIII. FIRE-ENGINES continued: Engines by Hautsch — Nuremberg — Fire-engines at Strasbourg and Ypres — Coupling screws — Old engine with air chamber — Canvas and leather hose and Dutch engines — En- gines of Perier and Leopold— Old English engines— Newsham's engines— Modern French engine— Air chambers — Table of the height of jets — Modes of working fire-engines — Engines worked by steam. FIRE ENGINES IN AMERICA : Regulations respecting fires in New Amsterdam — Proclamations of Governor Stuyvesant — Extracts from old minutes of the Common Council — First fire-engines — Philadelphia and New-York engines— Riveted hose— Steam fire-engines now being constructed. Devices to extinguish fire without engines — Water bombs — Protecting buildings from fire — Fire escapes — Couvre feu — curfew bells — Measuring time with candles — Ancient laws respecting fires and incendiaries — The dress in which Roman incendiaries were burnt retained in the auto da fe. THE fire-engine mentioned in the previous chapter, which Schottus wit- nessed in operation at Nuremberg in 1656, appears to have been equal to any modern one in the effects ascribed to it, since it forced a column of water, an inch in diameter, to an elevation of eighty feet. One German author says a hundred feet. It was 'made by John Hautsch, who, like most of the old inventors, endeavored to keep the construction of his machine a secret. He refused to allow Schottus to examine its interior ; though the latter it is said readily conceived the arrangement, and from his account it has been supposed the cylinders were placed in a horizontal position. The cistern that contained the pumps was eight feet long, two in breadth, and four deep ; it stood on a sled ten feet in length and four in width, and the whole was drawn by two horses. The levers were so ar- ranged that twenty-eight men could be employed in working them. The manufacture of these engines was continued by George Hautsch, the son, who is supposed to have made improvements in them, as some writers as- cribe the invention of fire-engines to him. 324 Strasbourg Fire-Engine. [Book III. In the 16th century no place could have furnished equal facilities with Nuremberg for the fabrication of, and making experiments with, hydraulic machines. It was at that time the Birmingham of Europe. " Nuremberg brass" was celebrated for ages. Its mechanics were so numerous that, for fear of tumults, they were not allowed to assemble in public " except at worship, weddings and funerals." No other place, observes an old writer, had " so great a number of curious workmen in all metals." The Hautschs seem to have been favorites with the genius of invention that presided over the city ; an aptitude for and an inclination to pursue me- chanical researches were inherited by the family. From a remark of Dr. Agricola of Ratisbon, in his curious work on Gardening, we learn that one cf them did not confine himself to devices for throwing' streams of water into the air ; for he contrived a machine by means of which he in- tended to raise himself into the upper regions. " What can be more ridi- culous [exclaims the author just named] than the art of flying, sailing or swimming in the air 1 Yet we find there have been some who have practiced it, particularly one Hautsck of Nuremberg, who is much spoken of for his flying engine. In the mean time it is well for the world that these attempts have not succeeded; for how should we seize malefactors'? They would fly over the walls of towns like Apelles Vocales, who they tell us saved himself by flying over the walls of Nuremberg, and the print of whose feet is there shown to strangers to this day." The art of fly- ing was a standard subject with Nuremberg mechanics for centuries, and several curious results are recorded, but perhaps nothing more so than the above objection to it. No. 145. Fire-engiue belonging to Strasbourg, A. D. 1739. For nearly a hundred years after the date of Hautsch's engine those used throughout Europe, with the exception perhaps of a few cities in Germany, were very similar to those described by Belidor, as employed in France in "his tfme. They consisted simply of two pumps placed in a chest or cistern that was moved on wheels or sleds, and sometimes carried by men like the old sedan chair. These engines differed from each other only in their dimensions and the modes of working them. Nos. 145 and 146 will convey a pretty correct idea of them during the early part of the 18th century. The former belonged to Strasbourg, the latter to Ypres. Chap. 8.] Fire-Engine at Ypres, 325 The front part of the cistern in which the pumps are fixed, is separated by a perforated board from the hinder part, into which the water was poured from buckets. The cylinders were four inches in diameter, and the pistons had a stroke of ten inches. Each pump was worked by a sepa- rate lever, A A; an injudicious plan, since a very few hands could be employed on each ; and as the engine had no air vessel it was necessary, in order to keep up the jet, that the piston should be raised and depressed alternately — a condition not easily performed by individuals unused to the operation, and acting under the excitement of a spreading conflagration. The contrivance for changing the direction of the jet was very defective, and considering the date of this engine it is surprising that such a one was then in use. A short leathern pipe would have been much better. It will be perceived that the jet pipe is connected to the perpendicular or fixed one by a single elbow, instead of a double one, like the ordinary goose-neck. The joints were also made differently. The short elbow piece had a collar or ring round each end, and the jet and perpendicular pipes, where they were united to the elbow, the same. The faces of these collars were made smooth, so as to fit close to and at the same time turn on each other : loose flanches on the pipes were bolted to others on tho elbow, and thus drew the collars together so as to prevent water from leaking through. Now it will be seen that although the joint which unites the elbow to the perpendicular pipe would allow the jet pipe to be turned in a lateral or horizontal direction, there appears no provision to raise or to lower it, and no apparent use at all for the other joint. We were at first at a loss to divine how the stream could be directed up and down as occasions might require, for Belidor has not explained it ; but on examining more closely the figure in his work, we found that the jet pipe itself was not straight, but bent near its junction with the elbow : this dis- solved the mystery, for it was then obvious that by twisting this pipe round in its joint, its smaller orifice could be inclined up or down at plea- sure. This very imperfect device is also shown in the next figure, the jet pipe being curved through its whole length, instead of a single bend as in the last one. No. 146. Fire-engine at Ypres, A. D 1739. The pumps of this engine are substantially the same as those of the last, but the piston rods are moved by a short vibrating beam placed directly 326 Fire Engine [Book III. over the cylinders. The axle of the beam is continued through both sides of the wooden case, and to its squared ends two iron rods are fitted, like crank handles on the axles of grindstones. To the lower ends of these rods are attached, by bolts, two horizontal bars of wood, on the outside of which a number of long pins are inserted, as shown in the cut. When the engine was in use men laid hold on these pins, one man to each, and pushed and pulled the bars to and fro, somewhat as in the act of rowing, and thus imparted the requisite movement to the pistons: a mode of work- ing fire-engines that might, we think, be adopted with advantage in mo- dern ones ; for the vigorous working of these is so exhausting, that the strongest man can hardly endure it over a minute at a time. The jet pipe of this engine is connected to the other by coupling screws or " union joints," the most useful and ingenious device for joining tubes that ever was invented; and one which, from its extensive application in practical hy- draulics, in gas' and steam works, and also in philosophical apparatus, has become indispensable. We notice it here on account of its having been erroneously attributed to a modern engineer ; whereas it was not new when introduced into Ypres fire-engines above a hundred years ago. Two of the greatest improvements ever made in these machines were introduced about the same time, viz : the air chamber and flexible pipes of leather and canvas ; upon these principally the efficiency of modern engines depends. By the former the stream ejected from a single pump is rendered continuous ; and by the latter, it is no longer necessary to take the engine itself into, or close to, a building on fire ; where in most cases it is impossible, from the heat of the flames and from smoke, to use it with effect. The modern author, or rather introducer, of the beautiful device for rendering the broken or interrupted jets of old engines uniform, is not known. In accordance with the customs of the age, he probably kept it secret as long as he could. We suspect that Hautsch's engine was fur- nished with an air chamber, and that it was on that account chiefly that he was so anxious to prevent its construction from becoming known. Beck- man states that Hautsch used a flexible pipe to enable him readily to change the direction of the jet, "but not an air chamber, which Schottus certainly would have described." How Schottus could have done this, when ac- cording to Prof. B. himself, Hautsch refused to let him see the interior of the engine, it is difficult to imagine ; and unless he had been acquainted with the properties of an air vessel, had the engine even been thrown open to his inspection, he could hardly have comprehended its action, unless explained to him by the manufacturer; at any rate, the secret, if it was in Hautsch's possession, was not long after divulged ; for in 1675 an anony- mous writer in the Journal des Scavans figured and described an engine with this appendage The account was the same year translated and pub- lished in volume xi of the Philosophical Transactions, p. 679. As this is the earliest notice of the application of an air vessel to pumps in modern times that we have met with, it is entitled to a place here. " This engine [No. 147] is a chest of copper, pierced with many holes above, and holds within it the body of a pump whose sucker is raised and abased by two levers. These levers having each of them two arms, and each arm being fitted to be laid hold on by both hands of a man. Each lever is pierced in the middle by a mortaise, in which an iron nail [bolt] which passes through the handle [rod] of the sucker, turns when the sucker is raised or lowered. Near the body of the pirmp there is a c&pper pot, I, [air vessel] joined to it by the tube G, and having another tube K N L, which in N may be turned every way. To make this engine play, water is poured upon the chest to enter in at the holes that are in the cover Chap. 8.J With Air Vessel, A. D. 1675. 327 thereof. The water is drawn in to the body of the pump at the hole F, at the time when the sucker is raised ; and when the same is let down, the valve of the same hole shuts, and forces the water to pass through the hole into the tube Gr of which the valve being lifted up, the water enters into the pot, and filling the bottom it enters through the hole into the tube K N L in such a manner, that when the water is higher than the [orifice of the] tube K, and the hole of the tube Gr is shut by the valve , the air in- closed in the pet hath no issue, and it comes to pass, that when you con- tinue to make the water enter into the pot by the tube Gr, which is much thicker [larger] than the aperture of the end L, at which it must issue, it must laeeds be, that the surplus of the water that enters into the pot, and •exceeds that which at the same times issues through the small end of the jet, compresses tJie air to find place in the pot ; which makes that, whilst the sucker is raised again to make new water to enter into the body of the pump, the air which has been compressed in the pot drives the surplus of the water by the force of its spring, meantime that a new compression of the sucker, makes new water to enter and causes also a new compression of the air. And thus the course of the water, which issues by the jet, is always entertained in the same state." The box or eheet had two pro- jecting pieces on each side, through which two staves were passed for the convenience of carrying it. This small engine appears to have been in .every respect an effective one; the whole of the parts, both of the pump and apparatus for working it, were well adapted to produce the best ef- fect. The goose-neck seems to have been formed of a species of ball socket joint. No. H7. View and Section of a Fire -engine with Ak Veaael. A. *. 1675. One might suppose that when this account of the .construction and -ef- Cects of air chambers was published to the world, and in the standard journals of France and England, that they would speedily have been -adopted in ir-e^engines throughout Europe. Such, however, was not the fact ; on the contrary, they appear to have remained comparatively un- known for -nearly fifty years longer ; for it was not tiU the expiration ,of the first quarter of the 16th century that they began to be much used, and *ome years more elapsed before they were generally employed. We >caia only account for this by the limited circulation of the scientific journals earned, and their being confined principally to learned men ; who then as indifferent towards mechanical researches : mechanics i in formerly felt £Jbose da-ye wene no great readers, and the few who possessed a taste for 328 Dutch Engines and Hose Pipe. [Book IIL books were commonly without the means to gratify it. It is however, singular that this account of the air vessel should have escaped the re- searches of Beckman, and especially so as it was republished in 1704 by Harris in his Lexicon Technicum, and in 1705 by Lowthorp in the abridg- ment of the Philosophical Transactions. He observes, "I can find no older engine with an air chamber than that described by Perrault, and of which he has given a figure. He says it was preserved in the king's library at Paris ; that it was employed for throwing water to a great height during fires ; and that it had only one cylinder, and yet threw out a continued jet of water. He neither mentions the period of the invention nor the name of the inventor, and I can only add that his book was printed in 1684." Beckman, in a note, states that he had not seen the first edi- tion of Perrault's work, and therefore knew not whether the French en- gine was described in it. We may here make the same remark, since the only copy in our possession is of the edition of 1684, having endeavored, but without success, to procure an impression of the previous one. In 1672 hose or leathern tubes were first publicly used, in modern times, to convey water from engines to fires by John and Nicholas Van der Heide, in Amsterdam, of which city they were inspectors or superintend- ents of fire apparatus. They made the tubes in fifty feet lengths, with brass screws fitted to the ends, so that any number could quickly be con- nected together, as occasions might require. The introduction of hose pipes forms an epoch in the history of fire-engines, for they wonderfully increased the effect and extended the application of these machines. Pre- vious to their adoption large engines could not be used to extinguish fires in the interior of dwellings — it was only when the flames burst through, the windows or roof, that they came into play ; and even then, it was often with difficulty and danger that they could be brought sufficiently near to discharge the water with effect, while in most eases the jet was so much diffused by the resistance of the air or wind as to descend rather in a shower of spray than in a compact stream. For want of hose the engines- themselves were also frequently burnt ; this was indeed a common occur- rence, and is often mentioned in the notices of conflagrations. In the great fire of London the rapid spread of the flames drove the firemen from their engines, and many were consumed.. In 1731 a great part of the town of Blandford, England, was destroyed, and in- an^ccount published by one- of the sufferers, it is said "the engines were pl^'d, but were soon burnt."" This loss of engines was invariably caused by the want of hose ; for when, plenty of the latter is at hand, the former ©an be placed and worked at any convenient distance from the fire, and the liquid discharged upon, almost any part of it. Another advantage resulting from the introduction of leathern pipes- was in making the engines supply themselves. Before the use- of hose, water was poured from buckets into the cistern in which the pumps were placed ; hence when a fire broke out, one of the first objects was to form a lane of men, extending from* the engine to the nearest rivulet, pond, well, or other source of water ; those on one side passed along the full buckets to the engine, whilethose on the other returned the empty ones. To dispense with this number of men, the Van der Heides screwed one end of a hose pipe to the lower part of the cistern and extended the other to the edge- of a pond or well, where its orifice was widened into a bag that was kept open by a frame. Into this bag the labourers poured the con- tents of their buckets, and sometimes portable pumps were used to raise- water into it, for it was necessary that it should be sufficiently elevated above the cistern of the engine that its. contents might readily flow into Chap. 8.] Perils Engines. 329 the latter. This was the first step towards using suction hose, and con- sequently towards making an engine supply itself. Perhaps it may be thought strange that they did not adopt this plan at first instead of the device just described, but in point in fact they could not, for before suc- tion pipes could be used, a radical change was required in the construe tion of the lower parts of the pumps, and one that could not without much difficulty and expense be made in the old engines. Hence the Van der Heides very properly preferred making new machines altogether ; to which they adapted suction pipes. These great improvements were made about 1675. In 1677, one or both of the Van der Heides obtained an exclusive privilege to construct such engines for twenty-five years. In 1695 there were in Amsterdam upwards of sixty of their engines, and when a fire broke out, the six that were located nearest were taken to extinguish it. The use of leather and canvas hose became general in the next century. In 1720 the latter was woven without seams in Leipsic and other places in Germany. Whether the engines of the Van der Heides had air vessels is not ascer- tained ; Professor Beckman says their internal construction is no where represented. There is strong evidence that they had none ; for so late as the first quarter of the 18th century, the Dutch engines were not gener- ally furnished with them, and this would certainly not have been the case had they ever been " common in all the towns of the Netherlands," as Van der Heide's engines were. Mr. Chambers, in his Cyclopedia, A. T). 1728, observes, article Hydrocanisterium, " The Dutch and others use a long flexible tube of leather, sail-cloth, or the like, which they carry or conduct in the hand, from one room to another, as occasion requires ; so that the engine may be applied where the fire is only withinside, and does not burst out to expose it to its external action. To improve on this original fire-engine, they have since contrived to make it yield a continual stream." At the time Belidor wrote, air vessels were not common in Holland, and in 1744, Desaguliers speaking of their advantages, remarks, " In the use of engines to put out fires which have no air vessels, like the Dutch en- gines, or old parish engines, a great deal of water is lost at the beginning and end of the jet er spouting of the water." Philos. ii, 164. Beckman says, it is certain that air vessels were not common in Germany till after they were used by Leopold. Perier in France, Leopold in Germany, and Newsham in England, contemporaneous engine makers in the early part of the 18th century, were greatly celebrated in their respective countries. They were some- times considered inventors of the fire engine, though very erroneously, for so far as the principle of its construction, application of the air ves- sel, goose-neck, flexible pipes of leather and canvas, the connection of these by screws, &c. were concerned, the engine was perfected before their time ; indeed not one of them contributed any thing essential to it. Their merit consisted in improving these machines in various minor details; in the arrangement of the different parts, construction of the carriages, mode of communicating motion to the pistons, and in rendering the whole more durable and efficient by superior workmanship and materials. In these respects the English engineer, we believe surpassed his competitors, but then he was the last of the three that entered the field, for Perier started before Leopold, and both were some years in advance of Newsham. No account of Perier's engines is to be found in modern books ; even Belidor has taken no notice of them. To supply this deficiency, we in- tended to insert a figure of one, taken from the 2d ed. of Poliniere's "Ex- periences de Physique," Paris, 1718, (the only work with which we are acquainted that contains a representation of them,) but on account of the 42 330 Perier's Engines. [Book III unusual number of illustrations required in this chapter, it is omitted. A short description will suffice. After describing an atmospheric pump be- longing to the arsenal of Paris, and another attached to a hotel in the fau- bourg St. Antoine, which had two spouts and two valves in the suction pipe, the author observes, J'ay vu a Paris des pompes dont on se sert pour tacher d' eteindre le feu quand il arrive des incendies; and he then enters into a minute description of one of these Parisian engines. In its general appearance it resembled the Dutch one No. 148, consisting of two work- ing cylinders with an air vessel between them, the piston rods moved by a double lever, through the ends of which staves four feet in length were inserted. The pump cylinders were sixteen inches long and four in dia- meter, but instead of being placed in a square wooden box or cistern, they were secured in an open copper pan, of an oval shape, and the same depth as the cylinders, and fastened by bolts to a base of wood or piece of plank, to the four corners of \vhich short ropes were fastened. At one end of the pan, the leather hose which conveyed the water to the fire was connected by a screw to a copper pipe that communicated with the lower part of the air chamber. The leather tubes, Poliniere observes, were lubricated with a composition of tallow and wax to render them pliable ; and, to prevent mice and other vermin from destroying them, soaked in an infusion of colycinth or bitter apple. In furnishing the pumps with water, Perier adopted the first device of the Van der Heides, and hence we infer that he was ignorant of the better mode of making them supply themselves through suction pipes. As they could only draw water out of the vessel in which they were placed, and it being too small and inconve- nient for numbers of people to pour the contents of their buckets into it when the engine was in use, a canvas or sail cloth bag, coated with pitch or tar, was connected by a flexible pipe of the same material, to the lower part of the pan. This bag was of a conical form, the wide end be- ing uppermost, and supported with the mouth open on a folding frame, something like a High camp stool. Into this bag the water for the supply of the pumps was poured. It might of course be placed at any conveni- ent distance from the engine, by means of additional lengths of pipes that were always kept ready and which were connected together by screws. These engines, Poliniere says, forced the water through the orifice of the jet pipe to a surprising distance. He observes also that smaller ones were in use ; which consisted of a single cylinder and air chamber, and were worked by a single lever. The following extract relating to Perier's engine is from the Diction- naire (Economique, 3d. edit. Paris, 1732, from which it appears that at that date they were small affairs, and differed but little from our garden engines ; in other words, they were then nothing more than pompes porta- tive, the name by which they were designated at the first. " La pompe que le Sieur du Perier a inventee ou perfectionnee est tres commode dans les incendies. Deux hommes la peuvent aisement transporter avec tout son attirail, et la placer dans tel lieu que Ton voudra. II n'est pas neces- saire qu'elle soit dans 1'endroit ou se trouve 1'eau, il y a un canal de coutil cire en dedans, qui sert a conduire 1'eau jusqu'a'la pompe. Ce canal peut e*tre augmente en y adaptant d'autres canaux faits de la me" me facon. La pompe etant placee dans le lieu le plus commode, ou peut encore por- ter 1'eau dans le plus fort de I'incJendie par le moien d'un canal, qui est fait de cuir, et qu'on augmente, autant qu'on veut, en y ajoutant d'autres canaux par le moien de quelques vis. La matiere dont est compose, ce canal donne la facilite de passer d'un appartement dans 1'autre pour ap- pliquer 1'eau dans 1'endroit le plus necessaire. Les circonvolutions du Chap 8.] Leopold's Engines. 331 canal n'empe"chent point Peau d'agir avec violence, et la force avec la- quelle elle agit est d'autant plus grande, que les homines qui font aller la pornpe, emploient eux-memes plus de force, la quantite d'eau depend en- core du nombre de pistons." In 1699 Perier obtained from the king an exclusive privilege to con- struct fire-engines, which Professor Beckman thinks were the first public ones employed in Paris. In 1716 an ordinance of the king directed a larger number than those already in use, to be distributed in different parts of the city, and public notice to be given where they could be found in case of fire.a In 1722 there were thirty in use, besides others belong- ing to public buildings. As these machines had air vessels, it is strange that Belidor neither mentions the fact nor refers to Paris engines at all. After describing a Dutch one, No. 148, he quotes (as if he knew of no others with air vessels) Perrault's description of the one that was in the king's library fifty years before, and an account of another that Du Fay saw at Strasbourg in 1725. Leopold's engines do not appear to have possessed any peculiar feature to which he could lay claim as inventor. They seem to have been iden- tical or nearly so with the one described in the Journal des Savans forty years before, (No. 147.) Each consisted of a single pump with an air ves- sel enclosed in a copper chest. One man raised a jet by it to the height of from twenty to thirty feet. Leopold kept the construction for some time a secret, and with this view the pump was entirely enclosed in the chest ; a cover being soldered on the latter. Beckman says he made and sold a great number of them. In 1720 he published a description of them in a pamphlet; and in 1724 he inserted an account of them in his Tlieatrum Machina?'um Hydraulicarum, a work published that year at Leipsic in three volumes folio. The annexed figure, No. 148, exhibits an improvement on Leopold's engine, having two cylinders and workingby a double lever. Small engines seem to have been prefer- red to those of large dimensions, such as were made by Hautsch, or those of modern times. Before the introduction of hose* pipes, small ones were certainly more useful, since they could be carried into any part of a house when on fire, but when flexible pipes of lea- ther and canvas became common, their efficiency was not to be com- pared with that of the large sizes. English fire-engines were much the same dimensions as those used on the continent till Newsham and contemporary engineers introduced others that approached in size those in present use ; but for several years after the smaller ones retained the preference. The London ma- nufacturers made six different sizes, the larger one only being placed on wheels. Even in the middle of the 18th century such as are re- presented by the figure on the next page were common in that city. A similar figure was published by Mr. Clare in 1735 in his work on the motion of fluids, and so late as 1765 it was described (in the London Ma- gazine for that year) as the engine in common use. As an indication that a Supplement to Diet. QEconomique. Amsterdam, 1740. Tom. ii, 163. No. 148. Dutch Fire-Engine. A. D. 1739. 332 English Fire-Engine of the ISth Century. [Book III air vessels were not used in England before the 18th century, it may be observed that in the year last named, those engines which had them were named " constant strearn'd engines," to distinguish them from those that had none — such being called squirting engines. No. 149. English Fire-Engine of the middle of the 18th century. In 1729 Switzer published his System of Hydrostatics, in which he in serted the circulars of two rival engine makers — Fowke and Newsham. As these documents contain some interesting particulars respecting the state of practical hydraulics at the time, as well as of fire-engines, we insert some extracts from each, previous to introducing Newsham's engine. " MR. FOWKE, Nightingale Lane, Wapping : makes " 1. Constant streamed engines for extinguishing fires, the large sizes play two streams at once, being the first and only of their kind, and does the office of two engines, and so contrived as to be drawn through, (and if occasion requires,) worked in a passage three feet wide, which no other can, and will feed themselves with a sucking pipe. Their movements are easy and natural, having a perpendicular stroke, and are without either rack, wheel, chain or crank, whereby the friction is lessened more than any others, and consequently requires less strength, are more useful, and less liable to disorder and decay, and much cheaper than any other ; and therefore are by judicious persons esteemed preferable to all others. By screwing a pipe they water gardens, dispersing the particles of water for about fourteen yards square, like small rain. The four larger sizes run on wheels, and the other two carried by two men like a chair. "2. ENGINES which will work either by water, wind, horses or men, and so contrived that either may work at a time, or be assistant to each other, whereby large quantities of water may be raised, so that if the height, dis- tance and quantity required be known, the expense and strength may be calculated so as to serve cities, towns, noblemen and gentlemen's seats and fountains, brewers, distillers, dyers; and for draining of lands, ponds, and mines of lead, coal, &c. " 3. PUMPS which may be worked by one man, for raising water out of any well upwards of one hundred and twenty feet deep, sufficient for the service of any private house or family ; and so contrived that by turning a cock, may supply a cistern at the top of the house, or a bathing vessel in any room ; and by screwing on a leather pipe, the water may be con- veyed either up stairs or in at a window, in case of any fire. "4. Ail manner of fancies in fountains." Chap. 8.] Newskam's Engines. 333 A fter referring to a number of machines erected by him in London and its vicinity, Mr. Fowke concludes with a table of prices of fire-engines, the smallest being c£14 and the largest ^£60. Newsham's circular is ob- viously designed to counteract the effect of Fowke's. " RICHARD NEWSHAM, of Cloth Fair, London, engineer, makes the most useful, substantial, and convenient engines for quenching fires, which carries continual streams with great force. He hath play'd several of them before his majesty, and the nobility, at St. James's, with so general an approba- tion, that the largest was at the same time ordered for the use of that royal palace. And as a further encouragement (to prevent others from making the same sort, or any imitation thereof) his majesty has since been graciously pleas'd to grant him his second letters patent, for the better se- curing his property in this, and several other inventions for raising water from any depth, to any height required. " The largest engine will go through a passage about three foot wide, in complete working order, without taking off or putting on any thing : and may be worked with ten men in the said passage. One man can quickly and with ease, move the largest size about, in the compass it stands in: and is to be play'd without rocking, upon any uneven ground, with hands and feet, or hands only, which cannot be paralleled by any other sort what- soever. There is conveniency for above twenty men to apply their full strength, and yet reserve both ends of the cistern clear from incumbrance, that others at the same time may be pouring in water, which drains through large copper strainers. The staves that are fixed through the leavers, along the sides of the engine, for the men to work by, though very light, as alternate motions with quick returns require ; yet will not spring and lose time the least : but the staves of such engines as are wrought at the ends of the cistern, \vill spring or break, if they be of such a length as is necessary for a large engine, when a considerable power is apply'd : and cannot be fix'd fast, because they must at all times be taken out before that engine can go through a passage. The playing two streams at once, do neither issue a greater quantity of water, nor is it new, or so useful, there having been of the like sort at the steel-yard, and other places, thirty or forty years ; and the water being divided, the distance and force are accordingly lessen'd thereby. " Those who pretend to make the forcers work in the barrels, with a per- pendicular stroke, without rack, wheels, chains, crank, pully, or the like, by any kind of contrived leavers, or circular motion whatsoever, with less friction, than if guided and work'd by wheel and chains, (which of all methods is the best,) do only discover their ignorance ; they may as rea- sonably argue, that a great weight can be dragg'd upon a sledge, with as little strength, as if drawn upon wheels. " As to the treddles, on which the men work with their feet, there is no method so powerful, with the like velocity or quickness, and more natural and safe for the men. Great attempts have been made to exceed, but none yet could equal this sort ; the fifth size of which hath play'd above the grasshopper upon the Royal Exchange ; which is upwards of fifty-five yards high, and this in the presence of many thousand spectators. " Those with suction feed themselves with water from a canal, pond, well, &c. or out of their own cisterns, by the turn of a cock, without in- terrupting the stream. They are far less liable to disorder, much more durable in all their parts, than any extant, and play off large quantities of water to a great distance, either from the engine, or a leather pipe, or pipes of any length requir'd ; (the screws all fitting each other.) This the cumbersome squirting engines, which take up four times more room, can- 334 NewsJtam's Engine. [Book III. not perform ; neither do they throw one fourth part of their water on the fire, at the like distances, but lose it by the way; nor can they use leather pipe with them to much advantage, whatever necessity there may be for it. The five large sizes go upon wheels, well box'd with brass, fitted to strong iron axles, and the other is to be carried like a chair." No. 150 is a vertical section of the pumps in Newsham's engine, with the air vessel between them, and showing also the sectors and chains by which motion is transmitted from the levers to the piston rods, and the latter preserved in a perpendicular position. The chains are similar to watch chains in their construction, and the length of each is equal to the arc of one of the sectors. Four are used, two to each sector. Their mode of operation is in this manner : One end of a chain is fastened to the top of a piston rod, by a bolt and nut as represent- ed, and the other end riveted to the lower extremity of the sector; so that when the latter is turned down by depressing the lever, it necessarily draws, by this chain, the piston down with it. Another chain is fastened in the same manner to the lower part of the piston rod, (that is above the cy- NO.ISO. Section of Newsham's Engine. iin(jer,) and the upper extremity of the sector, and hence when the lever is elevated, this chain raises the piston with it. He probably derived the idea of thus working them from Newcomen's mode of working pumps by the atmospheric steam-engine. The round opening below the valves in the above figure, is where the suction pipe is continued to the hose, shown at one end of the cistern in the next figure No. 151. Newsham's Fire-Engine, A. D. 1740. Chap. 8.J Modern English Engines. 335 No. 151 is an external view of one of Newsham's engines at the time of his death, as drawn by Mr. Labelye, the engineer of Westminster bridge, and inserted by Desaguliers in the second volume of his Philoso- phy, in 1744. Its general appearance is far inferior to modern ones, but the essential parts — the pumps — were equal to those now used. The strong iron shaft by which the pistons were raised and depressed was continued along the top of the cistern, and to it the levers were secured as at present ; but in addition to the levers, sectors, like those that moved the pistons, were also fastened to it — portions of two of these are shown in the cut, and there were two others near the upright case : to their upper parts, two long strips of plank, or treddles, were suspended by short chains, and on these planks, six men, who stood upon the cistern and held by the hand rails, alternately threw their weight; first on the tred- dle on one side of the carriage, and then on the other, and thus aided the firemen at the levers in working the engine. The box or trough, with a grate within it, at the end of the cistern, was for the purpose of emptying buckets of water to supply the pumps, when the suction pipe (figured be- low it) was not used. The small flap on the end of the upright case co- vered printed directions how to use and keep the engine in order. If the section, No. 150, be compared with English engines in previous use, one of which is figured at No. 149, it will be seen at aaelance how great were the improvements that Newsham introduced. Independently of the three most original of his contributions — the sectors and chains — treddles — and working the pumps with long staves at the sides of the carriage instead of short ones at the ends — the whole machine was im- proved more or less in every part. To keep the cistern and levers as low as possible, the carriage was placed on bent axles. He introduced and improved the three-way cock, and the goose-neck was perfected in. his hands ; the elbows being jointed to each other by very fine screws. De- saguliers thought that no part of the engine could be altered for the bet- ter. A writer in the London Magazine for 1752, (page 395,) says that Newsham in these machines gave " a nobler present to his country than if he had added provinces to Great Britain." Their merits were gene- rally acknowledged : he received orders for them from various parts of Europe, and it will be seen in a subsequent part of this chapter that those first used in this city were made by him. The celebrity his engines acquired had a blighting effect on other ma- nufacturers— like Aaron's rod swallowing up those of his competitors. His engines were purchased for the use of the parishes throughout the country generally, and also by the various insurance companies, which, unlike ours, are at the sole expense of extinguishing fires, and of provid- ing the means to effect it. Every insurance company in English cities keeps in its pay a number of firemen to take charge of and work its own engines. Two horses are attached to each engine to draw it to and from fires. The height of the jet from Newsham's engines was about fifty feet. He mentions in his circular having thrown it to an elevation tfjifty-Jive yards, but he was certainly mistaken. Several improvements have been made in English fire-engines since Newsham's time, but they are chiefly confined to the carriage, and to de- tails and arrangements of the various parts. Treddles are dispensed \vith, and the carriages are made longer, so that a greater number of men can be employed in working them. They resemble American engines so closely, that a separate figure of a modern English engine is unnecessary. The reader is therefore referred to T$Q. 154. Others on the principle of the semi-rotary pump, (No. 140,) are also used to a limited extent in London. 336 Modern French Engine. [Book III. The following figure of a modern French fire-engine is from the Ma- du Fondeur ; Paris, 1829. It consists of two cylinders and an air vessel arranged in the usual way. One of the pumps, and half of the air chamber, is shown in section. The cistern is more elevated than in Eng- lish or American engines, and from the consequent height of the levers would seem more inconvenient to be worked. The suction pipe is of copper with folding joints, and a perforated hollow ball at the extremity to prevent dirt or gravel from entering with the water. A short leathern tube connects this pipe with the suction cock. This engine is worked at the ends of the carriage, and the piston rods are connected to the lever by slings, and made to rise and fall in a perpendicular position by radius bars jointed to the upper ends of the latter, and to permanent pieces that pro- ject from the frame that supports the fulcrum. No. 152. Modern French Fire-engine. The elevation of the jet depends upon the pressure to which the air in the air chamber is subjected; the elasticity or spring of that fluid being inversely as the space it is made to occupy. Before an engine is set to work the interior of the chamber, like that of all empty vessels, (to use a vulgar solecism,) is rilled with common air, of that degree of density in which it appears near the earth's surface ; but when the pumps are set to work, the water forced by them into the chamber crowds the air into the dome or upper part of that vessel, whence there is no passage for its es- cape ; and, as the liquid accumulates, the air is condensed more and more, until, by its reaction on the surface of the water, it drives the latter through the jet or hose pipe, and with a force exactly proportioned to the degree of its compressure. Thus if the volume of air in the chamber be com- pressed into half its bulk, the jet would rise to about 32 or 33 feet, (if not retarded by friction, angles or other imperfections in the pipe;) and if it were made to occupy one third of its former space, its spring would be three times greater than common air, and would force the jet to an eleva- tion of about 64 or 66 feet ; and so on. A tabular statement, similar to Chap. 8.] Modes of Working Fire-Engines, 337 the following, exhibiting the relation between the height of a jet and the air's compressure, has long been published. It is, however, of little use to practical men. We doubt if a column of water of the size of those thrown by ordinary engines could be raised by any means, two hundred feet above the orifice of the pipe whence it issued : the resistance of the atmosphere would disperse it before it could reach that elevation. Volume of ;iir contained in the air Ratio of the air's Height to which it is said the chamber compressed to elasticity. water will spout. i - - - - 2 - - - 33 feet i - - - - 3 - - - 66" i - - - - 4 - - - 99" i .... 5 - - - 132 « i - - - - 6 - - - 165 " -f - - - - 7 - - - 198 « i - - - - 8 - - - 231 " i .... 9 ... 264 " iV - - - 10 - - - 297 « Great as are the advantages derived from air chambers, some attention to them is required in order to secure at all times the benefit they are designed to impart. When neglected (and we believe few parts of an engine exercise the attention of firemen less) they often become actually injurious, for when no advantage is derived from the elasticity of the con- fined air, the water is impeded in its progress by passing through them. Upon the trial of engines it sometimes occurs that the water is thrown higher at their first working than after they have been a few minutes in use, and this notwithstanding all the efforts of the firemen to make the jet reach the first elevation. This result has sometimes been attributed to fatigue in the men — to obstacles in the pipes — to grit or sand under the valves, &c. whereas in fact it was often due to the air vessel alone ; i. e. to the escape of air from it. This escape may be occasioned by mi- nute leaks in the chamber, but when no such imperfections exist the air frequently makes its exit, and its place becomes occupied by the liquid. Whenever air is subjected to great pressures in contact with water, it is quickly absorbed by the latter, and in this way it is that it often disappears from the air chambers of fire-engines, and also from those of pressure-en- gines, Heron's fountain, water .rams, &c. When a long suction hose is attached to an engine and the latter worked at a moderate velocity, a sufficient supply of air to replace that taken up by the water, commonly enters, unknown to the firemen, through the seams and joints ; but when one engine is fed by another pouring water into its cistern, there is little chance for the requisite supply of air, unless a minute opening were left in the cap that screws over the orifice of the suction pipe, at one end of the engine. The suction cocks of some engines diminish their useful effect in con- sequence of the holes through the plugs being smaller than other pas- sages for the water. The great desideratum in modern fire-engines is an improved mode of working them. At page 72 we remarked that experimental researches have shown the useful effect of a man working a pump, in the ordinary way with a lever, to be fifty per cent less than when he turns a crank ; and that when his strength is applied as in the act of rowing, the effect i» nearly one hundred and fifty per cent more than in moving a pump lever This is sufficient to induce efforts to supersede the present mode of work- ing the pumps of fire-engines, and particularly so, as the labor is so se- 338 Steam Fire-Engines. [Book III. vere that few can continue it above a minute or two at a time, when if relays of men are not ready, buildings on fire are left to fate. The jars or concussions produced by the violent contact of the levers with the sides of the carriage at every stroke, is a source of waste of firemen's energy, and want of uniformity in their movements when at work, is another. In the 29th vol. of the London Mechanics' Magazine, a contri- vance is described for diminishing the shocks consequent on the contact of the levers with the carriage. It consists of three spiral springs enclosed in cylindrical cases secured on each side of the carriage ; pads rest on the springs and project above each case, and upon them the levers strike when pulled down. Blocks of caoutchouc were previously tried, but the vio- lence of the blows soon rendered that material useless. The velocity with which engines are sometimes worked also occasions a useless expen- diture of their strength ; we have seen some drawing water through long suction pipes, and the pumps worked so quickly that the water certainly had not time to pass through the hose and Jill the cylinders, ere the pis- tons began to descend. If some mode of making the carriage immovable, and the pumps were worked by long cranks on each side, the firemen could not only perform fifty per cent more labor, but they could doit with less exertion, and consequently endure it longer. A modification of the plan adopted in the Yprqs engine, page 325, would be still more effective ; in addition to which ropes might be attached to the bars, and any number of specta- tors could then assist. If we review the progress of fire-engines in modern times, from the simple syringe to the splendid machines of the present day, we shall find that every important improvement in the apparatus for raising the "water, was a nearer approach to the engine described by Heron. Previous to the 16th century, syringes or squirts only were in use, and not till the Spiritalia had been translated and printed do we meet with the applica- tion of pumps. At first a single working cylinder was employed, and the piston moved by a single lever as in No. 144 ; then two cylinders, each worked by a separate lever, were united to one discharging pipe — next the double lever, as figured by Heron, by which an alternating movement of the pistons, and a more efficient application of the force employed was secured ; then the goose-neck, also mentioned by Heron — and lastly, the air vessel made its appearance. If the beautiful and philosophical device ]ast mentioned, be, as some persons have supposed, a modern invention, why is it that no one has ever rose up to claim it 1 Js not this a tacit ad- mission that it was derived directly from the Spiritalia, or from Vitruvius's description of the machine of Ctesibius '\ To the arcients, then, we are indebted for the most valuable features in our fire-engine's, and it is not unreasonable to conclude that those used in ancient PJgypt and old Rome were as effective as ours. If they were not, it is very strange that Heron should have hit upon that construction of them and that arrangement of their parts, which we have only acquired after a century spent in ex- periments. Of late years " steam fire-engines" have been introduced with success in some parts of Europe : a small horizontal steam-engine with its boiler, being arranged, on the carriage of the fire-engine. One large pump cylin- der only is used, and its piston and that of the steam cylinder are attached to the same rod. Mr. Braithwaite, a London engineer, was, we believe, the first who made one of these machines. The steam cylinder was seven and a half inches diameter, and the pump six and a half; the water was forced through an ajutage of seven-eighths of an inch, to an elevation of Chap. 8.] American Fire-Engines. 339 ninety feet. The time of getting the apparatus into play from the moment of igniting the fuel, was eighteen minutes. When an alarm of fire was given, the fuel was kindled and bellows attached to the engine were work- ed by hand. When the horses were harnessed to drag the machine to the tire, the bellows were worked by the motion of the wheels. (See London Mechanics' Magazine for 1830, and in volume xviii, for 1832, there is a figure and description of one made by Mr. B. for the Prussian government, being designed to protect the public buildings of Berlin.) One or two of these machines on an improved plan by Mr. Ericsson, are now being constructed in this city. FIRE-ENGINES IN AMERICA. — The first use of fire-engines is an impor- tant event in any country, and may be considered as constituting an epoch in the history of its useful mechanism : moreover, wherever they are made, they indicate a certain degree of refinement in civilization and an ad- vanced state of the mechanic arts. To their introduction into this conti- nent, future historians may, and probably will, have recourse for data res- pecting the state of society in the early days of the republic, and the still earlier times during which the country was subject to Europe ; for the circumstances which precede, and eventually lead to the adoption of fire- engines, invariably reflect light on the manners and customs, the police and other municipal regulations of the times, as well as on many of the arts, particularly those connected with building. The following extracts from official records in the clerk's office, respecting their introduction into the city of New- York, will be found to illustrate some of the above remarks. It does not appear that either squirts or engines were used during the rime the city remained in possession of its founders ; viz : from A. D. 1614 to 1664. The volume of Dutch records preserved in the clerk's of- fice, to which we referred, page 299, contains several enactments relating to fires and fire wardens, but no mention is made of instruments for extin- guishing fires until 1648, when ladders, hooks and buckets were ordered from Holland. As these records have never been printed, a few extracts from the "Ordinances of the 'Director-General and the Council of the New Netherlands," will be acceptable to most readers. The first one is dated May 29, 1647 : it cannot, perhaps, be strictly considered as related to our subject, although it was designed to remove a fruitful source of fires, viz : inebriety. On the above date the Director-General, Petrus St-uyvesant, issued a proclamation, addressed to certain of the inhabitants " who are in the habit of getting drunk, of quarrelling, fighting, and of smiting each other on the Lord's day of rest, of which on the last Sunday, we our- selves witnessed the painful scenes." It appears from this and other edicts to the same effect, that the governor had considerable difficulty in keeping a portion of his people sober; and from following a practice which he denounces as the " dangerous, injurious, and damnable selling, giving out, and dealing out, wines, beers, and ardent spirits to the Indians or na- tives of this land." Another proclamation is more to our purpose. " Whereas it has come to the knowledge of his excellency, the Director-General of New Ne- therlands, Curacoa, &c. and of the Islands of the same, and their Excellen- cies the Councillors, that certain careless persons are in the habit of neg- lecting to clean their chimnies by sweeping, and paying no attention to their fires ; whereby lately fires have occurred in £wo houses ; and whereas the danger of fire is greater as the number of houses increases here in New- Amsterdam ; and whereas the greater number of them are built of wood and are covered with reeds, together with the fact that some of the houses have wooden chimnies, which are very dangerous : Therefore, by the 340 Extracts from old Dutch Records. [Book III prompt and excellent Director-General and their honours the Councillors, it has been deemed advisable and highly necessary to look into this mat- ter, and they do hereby ordain, enact, and interdict, that from this time forth no wooden or platted chimnies shall be permitted, . . . Those already standing shall be permitted to remain during the good pleasure of the fire wardens As often as any chimnies shall be discovered to be -'. foul, the fire wardens aforesaid shall condemn them as foul, and the owners' shall immediately, and without any gainsaying, pay the fine of three guilders, for each chimney thus condemned as foul ; to be appropriated to the maintenance of fire ladders, hooks, and buckets ; which shall be pro- vided and procured [from Holland] the first opportunity. And in case the house of any person shall be burned, or be on fire, either through his own^ negligence, or his own fire, he shall be mulcted in the penalty of twenty-^ five guilders, to be appropriated as aforesaid. Thus done, passed and pub- T lished at Fort Amsterdam, this 23d day of January, 1648." This ordinance does not appear to have produced the desired effect, since a similar one was published in September of the same year. In Fe- bruary 1656 another was issued, by which the fire wardens were directed to establish such penalties for chimneys or houses taken fire "as shall befound among the customs of our Fatherland" At the close of the following year the use of squirts or engines does not appear to have occurred to the inha- bitants, a circumstance from which it may be inferred that such machines were at that time little used in Holland, and this also appears from an al- lusion to the practice of quenching fires there, in a proclamation prohibit- ing wooden chimneys, flag roofs, &c. " In all well regulated cities and corporations, it is customary that fire buckets, ladders and hooks, are in readiness at the corners of the streets, and in public houses, for the time of need. [Here is no mention of engines, although the instruments used in Holland are obviously alluded to.J The Director-General and the coun- cillors do ordain and authorize in these premises, the burgomasters of this city, either personally or by their treasurer, promptly to demand for every house, whether small or large, one beaver, or eight guilders in sea- want, according to the established price; for the purpose of ordering from the revenue of the same, by the first opportunity, from Fatherland, two hundred and fifty leather fire buckets; and out of the surplus, to have made some^re ladders zndjire hooks : and in addition to this, once a year, to demand for every chimney, one guilder for the support and maintenance of the same. Thus done in the session of the director-general and coun- cillors, held in the fort of Amsterdam, in New Netherlands, this 15th day of December, A. D. 1657." After New Netherlands became a British province, similar ordinances continued to be enacted till the year 1731, when two of Newsham's en- gines were ordered from London. These were probably the first fire-en- gines used on this continent. The following extracts are from the mi- nutes of the common council. " At a common council held the 16th day of February 1676-7, in the 2Sth year of Charles II. Ordered that all and every person and persons that have any of the city's ladders, buckets or hooks in their hands or custody, forthwith bring the same unto the mayor, as they will answer the contrary at their peril." The same date some wells were ordered to be made "for the public good of the city," among which was "one over against Youleff Johnson's the butcher ; and another in Broadway against Mr. Vandike's." " At a common council held the 15th day of March 1683, in the 3Qth of the reign of Charles II. Ordered that provision be made for hooks, ladders and buckets, to be kept in convenient places Chap. 8.] And, from Minutes of the. Common Council. 341 within this city, for avoyding the peril of fire." No mention is here made of engines, nor in the next extract, wherein the want of instruments to quench fire is especially referred to. " Feb. 28, 1686 : Whereas great damages have been done by fire in this city, by reason there were not instruments to quench the same. It is ordered that every inhabitant within the city whose dwelling house has two chimnies shall provide one bucket for its use : and every house having more than two hearths, shall have two buckets." Every brewer was to provide six, and every baker three buck- ets, under a penalty of six shillings for every bucket ordered. " January, 16S9 : Ordered that there be appointed five Brent masters for the city of New-York, as follows : Peter Adolf, Derek Vanderbrink, Derek Ten Eyk, Jacob Borlen, Tobias Stoutenburgh ; and that five ladders be made to serve upon occasion of fire, with sufficient hooks thereto." November 16, 1695 : Every dwelling in the city was to be provided with one or more buckets by New- Year's day. The tenants were to provide them for the houses they occupied, and the cost to be deducted from the rent. Every brewer was again ordered to procure for his pre- mises six, and every baker three. Several buckets were lost, and the public crier was directed to give notice. These " orders" do not appear to have been implicitly obeyed, for they were frequently repeated, and in November 1703, a penalty was attached for noncompliance. " Octo- ber 1, 1706 : Ordered that Alderman Vanderburgh do provide for the public use of this city, eight ladders and two fire hooks, and poles of such length and dimensions as he shall judge to be convenient, to be used in case of fire." November 20, 1716, a committee was appointed " to pro- vide a sufficient number of ladders and hooks for the public use of this city in case of fire." In November 1730, FIRE-ENGINES are first men- tioned. On the 18th of that month among other provisions enacted for the prevention and extinguishment of fires, one is in the following words : " And be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, that forthwith provision be made for hooks, ladders and buckets, and FIRE-ENGINES, to be kept in convenient places within the city for avoiding the peril of fire." At the same time the inhabitants were again directed to provide and keep buckets in tkeir houses. It does not appear that any active measures to procure the engines were taken till the next year, for under the date of May 6, 1731, the common council " Resolved that this corporation do with all •convenient speed procure two complete Jire-engines, with suction and all materials thereunto belonging, for the public service: that the sizes thereof l>c the fourth and sixth sizes of Mr. New/sham's Jire-engines : and that Mr. Mayor, Alderman Cruger, Alderman Rutgers aiad Alderman Roosevelt, or any three of them, be a committee to agree with some proper merchant or merchants to send to London for the same by the first conveyance, and report upon what terms the said fire-engines, &c. will be delivered to this corporation," On the I2tk of June the committee reported that the engines could be imported at an advance of 120 per cent on the»invoice; and they were ordered accordingly. They seem to have arrived about the 1st of De- cember, for on that day, a room in the City Hall was ordered to be fitted up •" for securing the fire-engines." On the \Mh of Dece?nber a cammittee of two was appointed " to have the fire-engines cleaned and the leathers oiled and put into boxes, that the same may be fit for immediate use." January 2d, 1732. The mayor and four members of the court were au- thorized to employ persons to put the fire-engines in good order, and also io agree with proper persons to look after and take care of the same. It .appears that Anthony Lamb was the first superintendent of fire-engines, 342 Fire-Engines in America [Book III for on the 2Uh of January 1735, the mayor was ordered " to issue his war- rant to the treasurer to pay Mr. Anthony Lamb, overseer of the fire-engines, or order, the sum of three pounds, current money of this colony, in full of^ne quarter of a year's salary, due and ending the first instant." On the same date a committee was appointed to employ workmen " to put them in good repair, and that they have full power to agree with any person or persons by the year, to keep the same in such good plight, re- pair and condition, and to play the same as often as there shall be occasion upon any emergency." April 15, 1736. " A convenient house [was ordered] to be made conti- guous to the watch-house in the Broad street for securing and well keeping the fire-engines of the city." This seems to have been the first engine house. May 1, 1736. Jacobus Turk, a gunsmith, was appointed to take charge of the fire-engines and to keep them in repair at his own cost, for a salary of ten pounds current money. Mr. Turk undertook during the next year to make an engine, for May 15, 1737, the common council or- dered the sum of ten pounds to be advanced " to the said Jacobus Turk, to enable him to go on with finishing a small fire-engine he is making for an experiment :" probably the first made in America. November 4, 1737. The common council drew up a petition to the le- gislature to enable the corporation " to appoint four-and-twenty able bo- died men, inhabitants within this city, who shall be called \\\e firemen of this city, to work and play the fire-engines within the same, upon all occasions and emergencies, when they shall be thereunto required by the overseer of the said engines, or the magistrates of the said city : and that the said firemen as a recompense and reward for that service, may by the same law be excused and exempted from being elected and serving in the office of a constable, or being enlisted, or doing any duty in the militia regiment,, troop, or companies, in the said city, or doing any duty in any of the said offices during their continuance as firemen aforesaid." This law was passed by the assembly in September following, and the duty of firemen de- fined. The next notice of engines occurs ten years afterwards, in March 1748, when the corporation " ordered that one of the fire-engines of this city, of the second size, be removed to Montgomery's Ward of this city, near Mr. Hardenbrooks ; and that a shed be built thereabouts at the charge of this corporation for the securing and keeping the same." By this it appears that several engines besides the two original ones were then in use. The one just named was a different size (much smaller) than those first ordered. It is uncertain whether the additional ones were made by Mr. Turk, but probably not, since both large and small ones were ordered from London for several years after this date. From the following ex- tract we find that several of the large fire-engines (the sixth size of New- sham) belonged to the city. February 28, 174.9, "Ordered that Major Vanhousand and Mr. Provost do take care to get a sufficient house built for one of the large fire-engines, to be kept in some part of Hanover square at the expense of this corporation, and that there be a convenience made therein for hanging fifty buckets : and also ordered that there be one hun- dred new fire buckets made for the use of this corporation with all con- venient speed." May 8, 1752. " Ordered that Jacob Turk have liberty to purchase six small speaking trumpets for the use of this corporation," i. e. for the pur- pose of giving directions to firemen during conflagrations. June 20, 1758, " One large fire-engine, one small do. and two hand do." were ordered to be procured from London. July 24, 1761. Mr. Turk, after superin- tending the engines for twenty-five years, was superseded by Jacobus Chap. 8.] Before the War of Independence. 342 Stoutenburgh, who was directed to take charge of them at a salary of thirty pounds ; and " the late overseer, Mr. Jacobus Turk, [was ordered to] deliver up to the said Jacobus Stoutenburgh, the said several fire-en- gines." November 19, 1762. The firemen were directed to wear leather caps when on duty. May 7, 1772. An engine was ordered to be pro- vided for the Out ward. July 10, 1772. " Alderman Gautier laid before this board an account of the cost of two fire-engines belonging to Thomas Tillier : and Alderman Gautier is requested to purchase the same." Sep- tember 9, 1772. A committee was authorized "to purchase one other fire- engine of David Hunt." The three engines last named were probably from England, for at the time these machines were in the list of ordinary imported manufactures. It is not impossible that some engines were made in Massachusetts about the time of the Revolutionary war. In October 1767, the people of Bos- ton, irritated by the exactions and disgusted with the parasites of mo- narchy, determined in a town meeting to cease importing from the 31st of December following", numerous articles of British manufacture, among which were enumerated anchors, nails, pewter-ware, clothing, hats, car- riages, cordage, furniture, and fire-engines. And in March 176S, the As- sembly resolved, " that this house will, by all prudent means, endeavour to discountenance the use of foreign superfluities, and to encourage the manufactures of this province ;" hence it is reasonable to suppose that en- gines either had been, or then could be made in the province ; otherwise it is not likely that their importation would have been denounced. As an article of trade they were, from the limited number required, insignifi- cant— they had no connection with luxury ; and so far from being " su- perfluities," they were necessary to protect the property of the people from destruction — they would therefore be among the last things that a people would cease to import while unable to make them. It was not till several years after the close of the struggle for indepen- dence that fire-engines were made in this and some other cities. They have, however, long been made here and in Philadelphia, Boston, &c. Small engines were formerly used, but they have gradually disappeared, the manufacturers confining themselves principally to the largest. The use of buckets has also been discontinued on account of the extensive applica- tion of hose. Village engines are sometimes constructed with single cy- linders and double acting, but being more liable to derangement, they are not extensively used. Rotary engines are also made in some parts of New-England, on the principle of Bramah and Dickenson's pumps, (No. 138.) As ordinary fire-engines are merely forcing pumps, arranged in carriages and furnished with flexible pipes ; it is not to be supposed that any radical improvement upon them can be effected. The pump itself is, perhaps, not capable of any material change for the better; and it is at present essentially the same as when used by Ctesibius and Heron in'x Egypt, twenty centuries ago: hence fire-engines, since hose pipes and air J chambers were introduced, have differed from each other chiefly in the r carriages and in the arrangement and dimensions of the pumps — as the | position of the cylinders, modes of working the pistons, bore and direction 5 of the passages for the water, &c. In these respects there is not much difference between European and American engines; nor in the varieties of the latter. Those made in Philadelphia rather resemble French and German engines, in working the pumps at the ends of the carriages, and without the sectors and chains ; while New- York engines are precisely the same as Newsham's, both in the arrangement of the pumps and mode of working them, with the exception of treddles, which are not used. 344 Philadelphia Fire- Engine. [Book III. No. 153 represents an external view of a Philadelphia engine : the pumps and air vessel are arranged as in No. 150, but the piston rods are connected directly to the bent lever, which is moved by a double set of handles or staves. A number of men stand upon each end of the cistern and work the engine by the staves nearest to them, while others on the ground apply their strength to the staves at the extremities of the lever. The staves turn upon studs at the centre of the cross bars, and when put in operation, fall into clasps that retain them in their places. Provision is made to convey the stream either from the lower or from the upper part of the air chamber. Hose companies supply the engines with water. The firemen, as in all American cities, are volunteers, and generally con- sist of young tradesmen and merchants' clerks, &;c. They are exempt from militia and jury duty. Each member pays a certain sum on his admission, and a small annual subscription. A fine is also imposed upon any one appearing on duty without his appropriate dress (see figure in the cut) as well for being absent. A generous spirit of rivalry exists among the different companies, which induces them to keep their engines in a high state of working order. No. 153. External Vio\v of a Philadelphia Fire-engine. No. 154 exhibits a New-York engine. The pump cylinders are ar- ranged and worked precisely as shown in the section No. 150. They are six and a half inches diameter, and the pistons have a stroke of nine inches. Previous to the formation of hose companies, each engine was provided with a reel of hose ; this, when not in use, was covered by a case of varnished cloth or leather. Most of the engines still have reels, which are carried as shown in the cut. The stream of water is invariably taken from the top of the air chambers, which resemble the one at No. 150> This practice is bad, because in most cases that part of the hose between the goose-neck and the fire descends to the ground, and hence the water in the pipe is unnecessarily diverted from its course and a corresponding diminution of effect is the result. In all cases the hose had better be con- nected to the bottom of the air chamber, or to its side near the bottom, as in Nos. 148, 152, 155. Very long chambers (as the one in No. 150) Chap. 8.] New- York Fire-Engine. 345 retard the issue of the liquid more than others which discharge it from the top, because the water has to descend in them nearly perpendicu- larly to enter the orifice of the pipe, and its direction is then precisely reversed, for it has to rise perpendicularly in order to escape. No. 154. New-York City Fire-eugine. In exterior decoration American engines are probably unrivaled : the firemen take pride in ornamenting their respective machines, and hence most of them are finished in the most superb and expensive manner. The whole of the iron work, except the tire of the wheels, is frequently plated with silver ; every part formed of brass is brought to the highest polish ; and while all the wood work, including the wheels, is elegantly painted and gilded, the backs, fronts, and panels of the case that encloses the air chamber and pumps, are enriched with historical and emblematical paintings and carved work, by the first artists. A new organization of the fire department of New-York has long been in contemplation, and the project of a law to that effect, is at this time under the consideration of the legislature of the state, and of the corpo- ration of the city. The most valuable contribution of American mechanicians to the means of extinguishing fires is the riveted hose, invented by Sellers and Pennock of Philadelphia. It is too well known both here and in Europe to re- quire particular description. No modern apparatus is complete without it. The Mechanics' Institute of New- York offered a gold medal (in January 1840) for the best plan of a Steam fire-engine. The publication of the notice was very limited, and but two or three plans were sent in. Of these, one by Mr. Ericsson, a European engineer now in this country, re- ceived the prize. No. 155 represents a view of the engine. No. 156 a longitudinal section of the boiler, steam engine, pump, air vessel and blow- ing apparatus. No. 157, plan. No. 158, a transverse section of the boiler through the furnace and steam chamber. No. 159, the lever or handle for working the blowing apparatus by hand. The following is the inven- tor's description, in which the same letters of reference denote the same parts in all the figures. 44 346 Steam Fire-Engine. [Book III "A the double acting force pump, cast of gun metal, firmly secured to the carriage frame by four strong brackets cast on its sides, a, a, Suction valves, a', a', Suction passages leading to the cylinder, a", Chamber containing the suction valves, and to which chamber are connected suction pipes a"' ', a'" j to which the hose is attached by screws in the usual man- ner, and closed by the ordinary screw cap. The delivering valves and passages at the top of the cylinder are similar to those just mentioned. . B the air vessel, of a globular form, made of copper. I b delivery pipes, to which the pressure hose is attached : when only one jet is re- quired, the opposite pipe may be closed by a screw cap, as usual. The piston or bucket of the force pump to be provided with double leather packing : [cupped leathers] the piston rod to be made of copper. Chap. 8.] Steam Fire-Engine. 347 " C the boiler, constructed on the principle of the ordinary locomotive boiler, and containing 27 tubes of l^jSr inch diameter. The top of the steam- chamber and the horizontal part of the boiler should be covered with wood, prevent the radiation of heat, c the fire door, c' the ash pan. c" a box attached to end of boiler, inclosing the exit of the tubes. The hot air from the tubes received by this box is passed off through smoke pipe c"', which is carried through D D, 'making a half spiral turn round the air vessel in the form of a serpent, c4, ir<5n brackets riveted to the boiler, and bolted to the carriage frame, c5, a wrought iron stay, also bolted to the carriage frame, for supporting the horizontal part of the boiler. 348 Steam Fire-Engine. [Book III " E, a cylindrical box attached to the top of the steam chamber, contain- ing a conical steam valve e, and also safety valve e1. e" screw with handle connected to the steam valve, for admitting or shutting off the steam. e1" induction pipe, for conveying the steam to F, the steam cylinder, provided with steam passages and slide valve of the usual construction, and secured to the carriage frame in the same man- ner as the force pump, f Eduction pipe, for carrying off the steam into the atmosphere, f Piston, provided with metallic packing, on Barton's plan, f", Piston rod of steel, attached to the piston rod of the force pump by means of G. a crosshead of wrought iron, into which both piston rods are inserted and secured by keys, g, Tappet rod attached to the crosshead, for mov- ing the slide valve of the steam cylinder by means of nuts g', g* , which may be placed at any position on the tappet rod. H. Spindle of wrought iron, working in two bearings attached to the cover of the steam cylinder, the one end thereof having fixed to it, li a lever, moved or struck ultimately by the nuts g' , g'. h1 a lever, fixed to the middle part of the spindle H, for moving the steam valve rod. I. Force pump for supplying the boiler, constructed with spindle valves on the ordinary plan ; the suction pipe thereof to communicate with the valve chamber of the water cylinder, and the delivering pipe to be connected to the horizontal part of the boiler, i, Plunger of force pump, to be made of gun metal or copper, and attached to the crosshead G. J. Blowing apparatus, consisting of a square wooden box, with pan- eled sides, in which is made to work a square piston j, made of wood, joined to the sides of said box by leather. /, Circular holes or openings through the sides, for admitting atmospheric air into the box ; these holes being covered on the inside by pieces of leather or India rubber cloth to act as valves, j", are similar holes through the top of the box, for passing off the air at each stroke of the piston, into K. Receiver or regulator, which has a movable top k, made of wood, joined by leather to the upper part of the box ; a thin sheet of lead to be attached thereto, for keeping up a certain compression of air in the regu lator. kf, Box or passage made of sheet iron, attached to the blowing apparatus, and having an open communication with the regulator at ~k" : to this passage is connected a conducting pipe, as marked by dotted lines in No. 156, for conveying the air from the receiver into the ash pan, under the furnace of the boiler at h'" ; this conducting pipe passes along the in- side of the carriage frame on either side. L, L. Two parallel iron rods, to which the piston of the blowing ap- paratus is attached : these rods work through guide brasses I, I, and they may be attached to the crosshead G, by keys at V, V. The holes at the ends of the crosshead for admitting these rods are sufficiently large to al- low a free movement whenever it is desirable to work the blowing appa- ratus independently of the engine. M. Spindle of wrought iron, placed transversely, and working in two bearings fixed under the carriage frame : to this spindle are fixed two crank levers m, m, which by means of two connecting rods m' mf, give motion to the piston rods L, L, by inserting the hooks m", m", into the eyes at the ends of the said piston rods. N. Crank lever, fixed at the end of spindle M, which by means of O. Crank pin, fixed in the carriage wheel, and also P. Connecting rod, will communicate motion to the blowing appara- tus, whenever the carriage is in motion, and the above parts duly con- nected. Chap. 8.] Fire Escapes. 34S "A pin n is fixed in lever N, placed at such distance from the centre of spindle M, that it will fit the hole n' of the lever shown in No. 159, whilst n" receives the end of the spindle M. Whenever the blowing apparatus is to be worked by the engine or by manual force, the connecting rod P should be detached by means of the lock at p. The carriage frame should be made of oak, and plated with iron all over the outside and top ; the top plate to have small recesses, to meet the brackets of the cylinders, as shown in the drawing. The lock of the carriage, axles, and springs to be made as usual, only differing by having the large springs suspended below the axle. The carriage wheels to be constructed on the suspension prin- ciple ; spokes and rim to be made of wrought iron, and very light. ^ The principal object of a steam fire-engine being that of not depending on the power or diligence of a large number of men, one or two horses should always be kept in an adjoining stable for its transportation. The fire grate and flues should be kept very clean, with dry shavings, wood and coke, carefully laid in the furnace ready for ignition ; and a torch should always be at hand to ignite the fuel at a moment's notice. To this fire- engine establishment the word of fire should be given, without interme- diate orders : the horses being put to, the rod attached connecting the car- riage wheel to the bellows, and the fuel ignited, the engine may on all or- dinary occasions be at its destination, and in full operation in ten minutes." Attempts to supersede fire-engines were formerly common. Zachary Greyl is said to be the first who, in modern times, devised a substitute. This consisted of a close wooden vessel or barrel, containing a considera- ble quantity of water, and in the centre a small iron or tin case full of gun- powder: from this case a tube was continued through the side or head of the barrel, and was filled with a composition that readily ignited. When a room was on fire, one of these machines was thrown or conveyed into it, and the powder exploding dispersed the water in the outer case in every direction, and instantly extinguished the flames although raging with violence a moment before. In 1723, Godfrey, an English chemist, copied this device, and impregnated the water with an " antiphlogistic" substance. He named his machines "water bombs." In the year 1734, the States of Sweden offered a premium of twenty thousand crowns for the best invention of stopping the progress of fires; upon which M. Fuches, a German chemist, introduced an apparatus of the same kind. Similar de- vices have been brought forward in more recent days ; but after making a noise for a time, they have passed into oblivion. (See London Maga- zine for 1760 and 1761.) Among the devices of modern times for securing buildings from fire, may be mentioned the plan of Dr. Hales, of covering the floors with a layer of earth ; and that adopted by Harley in 1775, of nailing over joists, floors, stairs, partitions, &c. sheet iron or tin plate. To increase the effect of fire-engines, the author of this work devised in 1817, and put in practice at Paterson, New Jersey, in 1820, the plan of fixing perforated copper pipes over or along the ceilings of each floor of a factory or other build- ings, and connecting them with others on the outside, or at a short dis- tance from the walls, so that the hose of a fire-engine could be rea- dily united by screws ; but the plan had been previously developed by Sir W. Congreve. It has recently been brought before the public as a new- invention. Of the numerous Fire Escapes that have been brought forward in modern times, the greater part are such as were employed by the ancients to scale walls and to enter fortresses, &c. in times of war. It is indeed obvious 350 Couvre Feu. [Book III. that the same devices by which persons entered buildings, would also an- swer the purpose of escaping from them : and as the utmost ingenuity of the ancients was exercised in devising means to accomplish the one, it was exceedingly natural that modern inventors should hit upon similar contri- vances to effect the other. In the cuts to the old German translation of Vegetius, to which we have so often referred, there are ladders of rope and leather, in great variety, with hooks at the ends which when thrown by hand or an engine, were designed to catch hold of the corners and tops of the walls or windows — folding ladders of wood and metal, some con- sisting of numerous pieces screwed into each other by the person ascend- ing, till he reached the required elevation ; others with rollers at their upper ends to facilitate their elevation by rearing them against the front of the walls — baskets or chests containing several persons raised perpen- dicularly on a movable frame by means of a screw below, that pushed out several hollow frames or tubes contained within each other, like those of a telescope, whose united length reached to the top of the place at- tacked— sometimes the men were elevated in a basket suspended at the long end of a lever or swape. Several combinations of the lazy tongs, or jointed parallel bars are also figured — one of these moved on a car- riage raised a large box containing soldiers, and is identical with a fire escape described in volume xxxi of the Transactions of the London So- ciety of Arts. Anciently the authors of accidental fires were punished in proportion to the degree of negligence that occasioned them ; and they were com- pelled to repair to the extent of their means, the damage done to their neighbors. A law of this kind was instituted by Moses, probably in imitation of a similar one in force among the Egyptians. Other prever,- tive measures consisted in the establishment of watchmen, whose duty it was to arrest thieves and incendiaries, and to give alarm in case of fire. From the earliest days, those who designedly fired buildings were put to death. A very ancient custom which related to the prevention of fires, is still partially kept up in Europe, although the design of its institution is almost forgotten, viz : the ringing of town bells about eight o'clock in the eve.ning, as a signal for the inhabitants to put out their lights, rake together the fire on their hearths, and cover it with an instrument named a curfew ; a corruption of couvre feu, and hence the evening peal became known as "the curfew bell." It has been supposed that the custom origi- nated with William the Conqueror, but it prevailed over Europe long be- fore his time, and was a very beneficial one, not only in constantly remind- ing the people to guard against fire, but indicating to them the usual time of retiring to rest ; for neither clocks nor watches were then known, and in the absence of the sun they had no device for measuring time. Alfred the Great, who measured time by candles,* ordered the inhabitants of Oxford to cover their fires on the ringing of the bell at carfax every night. The instrument was made of iron or copper. Its general form may be understood by supposing a common cauldron turned upside down and divided perpendicularly through the centre; one half being furnished with a handle riveted to it would be a couvre feu. When used it was placed over the ashes with the open side close to the back of the hearth. (See Diet. Trevoux: Hone's Every Day Book, vol. i. 243, and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Act iv, scene 4.) In the thirteenth year of Edward I. (A. D. 1285,) an act was passed !l In Shakespeare's play of Richard III. act v. scene 3, there is a reference under the name of a watch to these candles. They were marked in sections, each of which was a cer- tain time in burning, and thus measured the hours during the night or cloudy weather. Chap. 8.J Ancient Laws respecting Fires. 351 against Incendiaries, and night watchmen were ordered to be appointed in every town and city. In 1429 another act declared, " If any threaten by casting bills to burn a house, if money be not laid in a certain place,* and after do burn the house, such burning shall be adjudged high trea-/ son." Beckman says that regulations respecting fires were instituted in j Frankfort, in 1460. In 1468 straw thatch was forbidden, and in 147.4-i shingle roofs were prohibited. The first general order respecting fires in; Saxony are dated 1521, those for Dresden in 1529, and there is one res- pecting buildings in Augsburg, dated 1447. The following preamble to an act passed in the 37th year of Henry VIII. by which those found guilty of the crimes enumerated, were to suffer " the pains of death," is interesting in more respects than one. " Where divers and sundry malicious and envi- ous persons, being men of evil perverse dispositions, and seduced by the instigation of the devil, and minding the hurt, undoing and impoverish- ment of divers of the kings true and faithful subjects, as enemies to the commonwealth of this realm, and as no true and obedient subjects unto the kings majesty, of their malicious and wicked minds, have of late in- vented and practised a new damnable kind of vice, displeasure and damnifying of the kings true subjects and the commonwealth of this realm, as in secret burning of frames of timber, prepared and made by the owners thereof, ready to be set up and edified for houses : cutting out of heads and dams of pools, motes, stews and several waters : cutting of conduit-heads, or conduit-pipes : burning of wains and carts loaden with coals or other goods : burning of heaps of wood, cut, felled and prepared for making coals : cutting out of beasts tongues : cutting off the ears of the kings subjects : barking of apple trees, pear trees, and other fruit trees; and divers other like kinds of miserable offences, to the great dis- pleasure of Almighty God and of the kings majesty," &c. (Statutes at large.) The crime of arson was rife in old Rome, and it is singular that the mode of punishing those found guilty of it, is among the numerous ancient customs that have been retained by Roman Catholics in their religious institutions. The tunica molesta of the Romans was a garment made of paper, flax, or tow, and smeared with pitch, bitumen or wax, in which incendiaries were burnt ; and hence arose the peculiar dress worn by the victims in those horrible, those demoniacal " Acts of faith !" the Auto da Fe, of Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese inquisitions, (to which the scenes in Smithfield and other parts of England may be added,) acts, in which the order of justice was completely reversed — the sufferers being the inno- cents, and the court and judges the real criminals. Pressure Engines. [Book III. CHAPTER IX. PRESSURE ENGINES: Of limited application — Are modifications of gaining and losing buckets and pumps — Two kinds of pressure engines — Piston pressure engine described by Fludd — Pressure engine from Belidor — Another by Westgarth — Motive pressure engines — These exhibit a novel mode of employ- ing water as a motive agent — Variety of applications of a piston and cylinder — Causes of the ancients being ignorant of the steam engine — Secret of making improvements in the arts — Fulton, Eli Whitney aud Arkwright — Pressure engines might have been anticipated, and valuable lessons in Science may be derived from a disordered pump — Archimedes — Heron's Fountain — Portable ones recommended in FlowerGardens and Drawing-rooms, in hot weather — Their invention gave rise to a new class of hydrau- lic engines — Pressure engine at Chemnitz — Another modification of Heron's fountain — Spiral pump ofWirtz. PRESSURE ENGINES, named by the French Machines a colonne d'eau, form an interesting variety of hydraulic devices belonging to the present division of the subject. They consist of working cylinders with valves and pistons, and resemble forcing pumps in their construction, but differ from them in their operation ; the pistons not being moved by any exter- nal force applied to them through cranks, levers, &c. but by the weight or pressure of a column of water acting directly upon or against them. Pressure engines are not very common, because they are only appli- cable to particular locations — such as afford a suitable supply of water for the motive column ; but wherever refuse, impure, salt or other water can be obtained from a sufficient elevation, such water may be used to raise a quantity of fresh by these machines. In some forms pressure engines appear rather complicated, but when analyzed, the principle of their action and mode of operation will be found extremely simple : — If two buckets, partly filled with water, be suspend- ed and balanced at the ends of a scale beam, and a stream be directed into one of them, that one will preponderate, and consequently the other with its contents will be raised, and to a height equal to the descent of the former; but when it is required to raise water in this manner to an eleva- tion that exceeds the distance through \vhich the descending vessel can fall ; then the capacity of the latter is enlarged, and it is suspended nearer to the fulcrum or centre on which the beam turns, as in the gaining and losing bucket, page 66 : — It is virtually the same principle that is em- ployed in pressure engines ; the difference is principally in the manner of performing the operation. Instead of vessels suspended as above, two solid pistons, moving in cylinders, are attached by rods or chains to the ends of a beam, or to the ends of a cord passed over a pulley, so that the pressure of a longer or heavier column of water resting upon one piston forces it down, and thereby raises the other and with it the lighter or shorter column reposing upon it. By referring to the 16th illustration on page 64, it will be apparent that if a cylinder extended from B to the top of the cistern Z, and a hollow piston like the upper box of an atmospheric pump fitted to work in it were substituted for the bucket B, the effect produced would be much, the same as with the two buckets, for the same quantity of water could be raised through the cylinder into the cistern Z, if allowance were made for Chap. 9.] Piston Pressure Engines. 353 an increase of friction in the passage of the piston.* And if another cylin- der extended from F to the bottom of the pit at O, and a solid piston fit- ted to it were used instead of the bucket A, with a contrivance at the bot- tom to allow the water to escape ; the apparatus would then be a pres- sure engine, although the principle of the motive part of it would not have been essentially changed. The cylinders in this example would perform the part of the buckets A B ; they might be considered as permanent or fixed, and very long buckets with movable bottoms, i. e. the pistons, which by ascending and descending in them received and discharged their con- tents. And as with the buckets A and B, the quantity of water expended from the motive or descending column would be proportionate to the di- mensions of the other and the elevation to which it was raised. Pressure engines may therefore be considered as a peculiar modification of the gaining and losing bucket machines, and as a combination of these with atmospheric and forcing pumps. They admit of various forms according to the location in which they are used and the objects to be accomplished by them. As liquids press equally in all directions, the cylinders may be placed in any position — horizontal, inclined, or vertical. Sometimes a pressure engine consists of a single cylinder with its appropriate pipes and valves like a double acting pump. The water to be raised enters at one side of the piston, and the motive column at the other ; but more com- monly a distinct cylinder and piston receives the impulse of the motive column, and in order to transmit it to the other, the two pistons are some- times connected to the same rod as in No. 161 — at other times to oppo- site ends of a vibrating beam as in No. 162 — so that while one cylinder and its apparatus act as a pump to raise water, the other is exclusively employed to work it. In this respect pressure engines may be considered rather as devices for communicating motion to machines proper for raising water, than as the latter, and they are sometimes used as propellers of other machines, but in whatever light they may be viewed, they are too interesting to be omitted. There are two kinds of pressure engines, but they differ from each other only in that part which receives the impulse of the motive column and transmits it to the other. In one, a solid body (a piston) is used for that purpose — in the other, a volume of air; but while a slight variation is thus caused in the two machines, the essential features, as well as the moving principle of both remains the same. Piston pressure engines are said to have been invented in the 1 8th century by M. Hoell, a German en- gineer.11 It is more probable that he improved them only, for they cer- tainly were known much earlier : still it may be that he was ignorant of their previous use, and was led to their reinvention by his efforts to raise water from the Hungarian mines, in which he erected several pressure machines on the principle of Heron's fountain : the transition from these to the other was easy and natural, and may have resulted from his endea- vours to avoid a defect to which the former are subject, viz : the absorp- tion of the air by the water. About A. I). 1739, an improved form of pressure engines was devised, and introduced into some mines in France by Belidor, which he has described in his Architecture Hydraulique. Some writers have considered him the author of piston pressure engines, but a Pumps in certain locations are sometimes worked in that manner t the pistons or rods being loaded with weights sufficient to depress them, are raised by a bucket of water suspended at the opposite end of the beam, which when it reaches the bottom ita contents are discharged, like the bucket A in No. 16, D in No. 37, or G in No. 162. b "Machine a colonne d'eau. German : Wasser Saulene. Machine ; inventee par M. Hoell, premier Machiniste d'L'Imperatrice." Arts et Metieres. L'Art d'exploitet Les Mines. Folio ed., Paris 1779, page 1449. Quarto ed. torn, xviii, p 131. 45 354 Pressure Engine from Fludd. [Book III. the honor of first inventing them is not, in fact, due to either Belidor or Hoell, as the following figure, No. 160, from a work published a century before either of those engineers flourished, will show. It is from Fludd's Natures simia seu technica macrocosmi, 467. The character of this author as an astrologer and alchymist, and that of his works, which abound with absurdities, have probably caused the figure to be overlooked by modern writers on hydraulic and hydrostatic apparatus. Chemistry, however, is not the only science that is indebted to the shrewd but mistaken seekers of universal panaceas and of the philosopher's stone. The lower end of the pipe B D having a valve opening upwards, is inserted into the water to be raised. The pipe A receives the descend- ing or motive liquid column, which in this case was refuse or stagnant water, flowing from a source of sufficient altitude. This pipe may be at a considerable dis- tance from B D, and is so repre- sented in the original figure. It terminates below in a pit, drain, or low ground, whence the wa- ter discharged from it may es- cape. The end of ,it should be lower than that of D, and should be sealed or covered by water as represented, to prevent the entrance of air. A communica- tion is made between both these pipes by the horizontal one C. This last is connected to A at one of the apertures of a three- way cock, the upper and lower part of A being united to the other two. The other end of C terminates at the bottom of a working cylinder, which is closed at the top, by a short tube com- municating with B D, immediate- ly below a valve placed in the latter. In the cylinder, a piston (indicated by the dotted lines) is fitted. It is described as a wooden plug covered with lea- ther and loaded with lead, so as to make it descend in the cy- No. 160. Pressure Engine from Fludd. A. D. 1618. Under by its weight. To put this machine in operation, the cylinder and pipe D are first filled . with water through the funnel and small cock, after which the latter is closed. The plug of the three-way cock is then so arranged, that its two orifices coincide only with the upper part of A, and with C, when the pressure of the column in A will force up the piston, and with it all the water previously in the cylinder, which is thus compelled to ascend through the upper valve into the discharging pipe B. When this has taken place, the vessel G, suspended at one end of the rod that passes through the shank of the plug, has become filled with water, from the small jet issuing from A, and descending, turns the plug of the cock, so as to close the communication of the upper part of A with C, and open it be- Chap. 9.] Improved Pressure Engine from Belidor. 35/> tween C and the lower part of A, upon which the piston descends in the cylinder and the foul water in C escapes through the lower end of A and runs to waste. By the time the piston reaches the bottom of the cylinder, the latter is refilled with water by the pressure of the atmosphere, as in a common pump ; and the contents of G have escaped through an orifice in its bottom, which is closed by a valve — this valve being opened by a projecting pin upon which the vessel descended, as shown in the figure. As soon as G is emptied, the weight on the opposite end of the rod prepon- derates, and turns the plug of the cock into its former position ; and thus the play of the machine is continued without intermission. The operation of filling the cylinder through the funnel, is required only at the first, like the priming of a new pump. The origin of this machine is uncertain. It does not appear to have been invented by Fludd himself, but is inserted among others, which he copied from older authors ; and such as he examined abroad. As he tra- veled in Germany and has described some of the hydraulic machines used in the mines there, (see one figured on page 219,) it is probable that he derived a knowledge of it in that country. It possesses considerable interest — it is self acting, and that by a very simple device — it shows an old application of the three-way cock — it exhibits the application of refuse or putrid water, to raise fresh, and in a way somewhat similar to one re- cently proposed — and it is the oldest piston pressure engine known. The next figure from Belidor, shows a great improvement on the last, so much so, that in some respects it may be considered a new machine. A, conveys the descending 3 II column from its source to the three-way cock F ; to one of the openings of which it is united. This cock is con- nected, at another opening, to the horizontal cylinder C, whose axis coincides with that of a smaller one D. Both cylinders are of the same length ; and their pistons are attached to a common rod, as represented. Two valves are placed in the ascending pipe B — one below, the other No. 161. Pressure Engine from Belidor. A. D. 1739. above its junction with the cylinder D. The horizontal pipe H connects B and D with the third opening of the cock. By turning the plug of this cock, a communication is opened alternately between each cylinder and the water in A. Thus when the water rushes into C, it drives the piston before it to the extremity of the cylinder, and conse- quently the water that was previously in I) is forced up the ascending pipe B ; then the communication between A and C is cut off, (by turn- ing the cock) and that between A and D is opened, when the pistons are moved back towards F by the pressure of the column against the smaller piston — the water previously in C escaping through an opening shown in front of the cock and runs to waste, while that which enters D is necessarily forced up B at the next stroke of the pistons. The cock was opened and closed by levers, connected to the middle of the piston rod, and was thus worked by the machine itself. By the air chamber, the discharge from B is rendered continuous. 356 Westgaritis Pressure Engine. [Book III. Suppose the water in A lias a perpendicular fall of thirty-four or thirty- five feet, and it were required to raise a portion of it to an elevation of seventy feet above F ; it will be apparent that if both pistons were of the same diameter, such an object could not be accomplished by this ma- chine— for both cylinders would virtually be but one — and so would the pistons ; and the pressure of the column on both sides of the latter would be equal. A column of water thirty-five feet high presses on the base that sustains it with a force of 151bs. on every superficial inch ; and one of seventy feet high, with a force of SOlbs. on every inch — hence \vithout re- garding the friction to be overcome, which arises from the rubbing of the pistons ; from the passage of the water through the pipes : and from the ne- cessary apparatus to render the machine self-acting — it is obvious in the case supposed that the area of the piston in C must be more than double that in D, or no water could be discharged through B. Thus in all cases, the relative proportion between the area of the pistons, or diameter of the cy- linders, must be determined by the difference between the perpendicular height of the two columns. When the descending one passes through a perpendicular space, greatly exceeding that of the ascending one, then the cylinder of the latter may be larger than that of the former : a smaller quantity of water in this case raising a larger one : it, however, descends like a small weight at the long end of a lever, through a greater space. In 1769 the London Society of Arts, awarded to Mr. Westgarth a pre- mium of fifty guineas, for his invention of a pressure engine. It is des- cribed by the celebrated Smeatori, in vol. v, of their Transactions, as "one of the greatest strokes of art in the hydraulic way, that has appeared since the invention of the fire [steam] engine." Several were erected by Mr. W. in 1765, to raise water from lead mines in the north of Eng- land. They were simple in their construction, and somewhat resembled the engines of Newcomen. They differed from those of Belidor in the position of the cylinder ; the introduction of a beam ; the substitution of cylindrical valves in the place of cocks ; and using the motive column to move the piston in one direction only. The cylinder of Westgarth's en- gine was placed in a vertical position, the piston rod of which was sus- pended by a chain from the arched end of a " walking" or vibrating beam ; while the other end of the latter, projected over the mouth of the mine or pit, and was connected (by a chain) to the rod of an atmospheric pump placed in the pit. This rod was loaded as in Newcomen's engine, so as to descend by its weight and thereby raise the piston of the pressure en- gine when the column of water was not acting on the latter. Thus, when the motive column of water was admitted into the cylinder, the piston was depressed, and the end of the beam also, to which it was connected ; consequently the pump rod and its sucker were raised, and with them water from the mine. Then as soon as the piston reached the bottom of the cylinder, the motive column was cut off, by closing a valve ; and a passage made for the escape of that within the cylinder, by opening another — upon which the loaded pump rod again preponderated — the valve to admit the column on the piston of the pressure engine was again opened, and the operation repeated as before. In another form these machines have been adopted, in favorable loca- tions, as first movers of machinery, and when thus used, they exhibit a very striking resemblance to high pressure steam-engines. Indeed, the elemental features of steam and pressure engines are the same, and the modes of employing the motive agents in both are identical — it is the dif- ferent properties of the agents that induces a slight variation in the ma- chines— one being an elastic fluid, the other a non-elastic liquid. In steam- Chap. 9.] Motive Pressure Engine. 357 engines a piston is alternately pushed up and down in its cylinder by steam ; and by means of the rod to which the piston is secured, motion is communicated to a crank and fly-wheel, and through these to the machi- nery to be propelled : it is the same with pressure engines when used to move other machines, except that instead of the elastic vapor of water, a column of that liquid drives the pistons to and fro, as will be perceived bv an examination of the following figure. No. 162. Motive Pressure Engine. E represents the lower part of the pipe which conveys the water down from its source into the air chamber C, from the lower part of which it passes through a short tube and stop cock into the valve case, or "side pipe" D. This pipe is parallel with the working cylinder of the engine A, and rather longer : it communicates with A through two passages for the admission of the water to act upon both sides of the piston. The ends of D are closed by stuffing boxes, through which a rod in the direction of its axis is made to slide, and upon this rod are secured two plugs, shown in the cut, that fill the interior of the pipe like pistons, and as the rod is raised or lowered, alternately open and close the passages into the cylin- der. Suppose the position of the various parts of the engine as indicated in the figure, and the stop-cock in the short tube that connects the " side pipe" to the air vessel be opened, the water would then rush into the upper part of the cylinder A, as shown by the arrows, and by its statical pressure force down the piston ; while any water previously below the piston would escape through the lower passage into the side pipe (be- neath the plug) and run off to waste through the tube B, marked by dot- ted lines, and the circular orifices of which are also figured. When the piston has reached the bottom of the cylinder, the rod to which the plugs are attached is drawn down, so as to close the upper passage and open the lower one, upon which the water enters through the latter and drives up the piston as before, the previous contents of the cylinder being forced through the circular orifice in the upper part of the side pipe into B. In this manner the operation is continued and motion imparted to the beam, crank and fly-wheel. The apparatus for moving the rod that opens 35S Pressure Engines. [Book III. and closes the passages into the cylinder is analogous to that of steam en- gines, being effected by an eccentric on the crank shaft. It is omitted in the cut, that the essential features of the machine might appear more conspicuous. It is obvious that engines of this kind may be employed to impart mo- tion to pumps or any other machinery. The intensity of the force trans- mitted by them depends upon the perpendicular height of the motive column and the area of the piston. The use of the air vessel is, as in the hydraulic ram and other machines, to break the force of the blow or con- cussion consequent on the sudden stoppage of the descending column by closing the passages. Wherever the waste pipe B can descend thirty- five or thirty-six feet, the engine may derive an additional power from the vacuum thus kept up behind the piston, as in low-pressure steam-engines. The application of this feature to pressure engines was included in an English patent granted to John Luddock in February 1799. (Repertory of Arts, vol. xi, page 73.) The invention of pressure engines brought to light a new mode of em- ploying water as a motive agent ; and also the means of applying it in locations where it could not otherwise be used. When water moves an under or overshot wheel, the machinery to be propelled must be pkced in the immediate vicinity — hence saw, grist, and fulling mills, &c. are erected where the falling liquid flows ; and when steam is the moving force, the engines are located where the fluid is generated ; but with pres- sure engines it is different, for the motive agent may be taken to the ma- chine itself. In valleys or low lands, having no natural fall of water, but where that liquid can be conveyed in tubes from a sufficient elevation, (no matter how distant the source may be,) such water, by these machines, may be made to propel others. And by means of them the small lakes often found on mountains, and water drawn from the heads of falls and rapids, may furnish power for numerous operations in neighboring plains. When cities are supplied from elevated sources, an additional revenue might be derived from the force with which the liquid issues from the tubes : the occupant of a house into which a lateral pipe from the mains is conveyed, might connect the pipe to a pressure engine, and thereby impart motion to lathes, or printing presses ; raise and lower goods on dif- ferent stories ; press cotton, paper, books, &c. as by a steam-engine. But unlike the machine just named, a pressure engine is inexpensive, and sim- ple in its construction — it requires neither chimneys, furnaces, nor loads of fuel; neither firemen nor engineers, nor is there any danger of explo- sions. It may be placed in the corner of a room, or be concealed under a counter or a table. It may be set in operation in a moment, by opening a cock, and the instant the work is done, it may be stopped by shutting the same, and thus prevent the least waste of power — and when the work is accomplished, the water can be used for all ordinary purposes as if just drawn from the mains, for the engine might be considered as merely a continuation of the lateral tube. Pressure engines afford another illustration of the variety of purposes to which a piston and cylinder may be applied. These were probably first used in piston bellows ; next in 'the syringe ; subsequently in purnps of every variety ; and then in pressure and steam-engines. The moving piston is the nucleus or elemental part that gives efficiency to them all; and the apparatus that surround it in some of them, are but its appendages. To what extent it is destined to be employed when stearn becomes super- seded by other fluids, time only can reveal; but if we may judge of the future by the past, this simple device will perform greater wonders in the Chap. 9.] Discoveries in the Arts. 359 world than it has yet accomplished. It is by it only that the energy of elastic fluids can be economically employed. Those ingenious men who first constructed a bellows, a syringe, or a pump, little thought that similar implements should become self-acting, and even be motive engines to drive others. What weary laborer at the punip in ancient Greece or Rome, ever dreamt, while indulging in those reveries that the mind conjures up to divert attention from toil or pain, that a machine similar to the one upon which his strength was expended, should be devised to work without human aid : — and that a modification of it, excited by the vapor of a boiling cauldron, should exert a force compared with which the power of the Titans was impotence — a force that should drive fleets of gallies through a storm — hurl missiles like the balistse — propel chariots " without horses" — polish a mirror — forge a hatchet, a tripod or a vase — and spin thread and weave it into veils, fine as those worn by the vestal virgins — and yet should never tire ! Could the imaginations of the depressed plebeians and slaves of antiquity have had a glimpse of such a machine, and had they been informed that it would in some future time, which the oracles had not revealed, be gene- rally employed — how vehemently would they have importuned the gods to send it in their days ! And why did they not have it ] Because the useful arts were neglected and their professors despised — while those professions the most destructive of human felicity were cultivated. War was accounted honorable, and hence nations were incessantly engaged in conflicts with each other — a military spirit pervaded the minds of the people, and it rewarded them by soaking every land with their blood. The history of machines composed of pistons and cylinders also illus- trates the process by which some simple inventions have become applied to purposes, foreign to those for which they were originally designed — each application opening the way for a different one. In this manner de- vices apparently insignificant have eventually become of the utmost value, and it is' probable that there is no mechanical combination or device, how- ever useless it may now appear, but which will be thus brought into play. These machines also teach us how new discoveries are made in the arts, viz : by observing common results, and applying the principles or processes by which they are induced, to other objects or designs. Every mechani- cal movement and manufacture — an unsuccessful experiment — defects or derangements of ordinary machines, &c. are all practical demonstrations that indicate the means to produce analogous effects, or to avoid them. Fulton employed steam-engines to turn paddle wheels — Eli Whitney adopted circular saws as cotton gins ; and both became benefactors of their country — a poor barber in England, after exercising his ingenuity on the perpetual motion, applied some of his devices to cotton spinning, and not only became one of the most opulent of manufacturers, but secured a place in the biography of eminently useful men. Nearly all modern improvements and inventions have been brought about in a somewhat similar manner, and there are few but what might have been anticipated by attention to every-day facts. Suppose pressure engines had not yet been known : they might be developed by reflecting on a very common circumstance connected with ordinary pumps. When one of these no longer retains water in the cylinder and trunk, it is neces- sary to prime it, by pouring in a quantity sufficient to fill the space in which the sucker moves: this water resting upon the latter presses it down, and consequently raises the lever or pump handle, which again descends as soon as the water escapes below ; thus illustrating the principle by which pressure engines act — the lever being moved by the water instead of the 360 Heron's Fountain. [Book III. water by it. How many ages have elapsed, and how many millions of people have witnessed this operation, without a useful idea having been derived from it? And without any one thinking that valuable lessons in science might be learnt from a disordered pump, or from the irregular movements of a pump handle 1 Those observing minds, however, that are constantly on the alert for facts — like bees incessantly on the wing for honey — would not now suffer even such an occurrence to pass unnoticed; nor would they hesitate to consider those unpleasant knocks which hundreds of people (and the writer among them) have occasionally expe- rienced from the unexpected descent of a heavy pump handle on their persons, and in some instances more unpleasant ones from its sudden as- cent— as admonitions to turn the experiment to advantage. The simple rise of water which his body displaced in a bathing tub, was seized in a twinkling by the mathematician of Syracuse to solve a new and difficult problem ; yet the same thing had been previously witnessed for thousands of years, but no one ever thought of applying the result to any such purpose. It perhaps may be a question whether the machines already described in this chapter were known to the engineers of antiquity, but there is no room to doubt their acquaintance with another variety of pressure engines, since we have obtained a knowledge of them from the Spiritalia of Heron, whose name they still bear. It is obvious that a liquid may be forced out of a vessel by pressing into the latter any other substance, no matter what the nature of it may be, whether solid or fluid, liquid or aeriform : thus, the solid plunger or piston of a pump does not more effectually expel the contents of the cylinder in which it moves, than the elastic fluid in a soda fountain drives out the aerated water ; hence, if air be urged by the pres- sure of a liquid column, or by any other force, to occupy the interior of a vessel containing water, the liquid may be raised through a tube to an elevation equal to the force that moves it ; the air in this case performing the part of pistons in the pressure engines already described ; and its ef- fects are greater than can be produced by solid pistons, for the friction of these consumes a considerable portion of the motive force, so that a co- lumn of water raised by them can never equal the one that raises it ; whereas air, from its extreme mobility, receives and transmits the momen- tum of the motive column undiminished to the other. The fountain of Heron is the oldest pressure engine known, and in it a volume of air is used as a substitute for a piston. It is not certain that it was invented by him, for it may have been an old device in his time, and one which he thought worthy of preservation, or of being made more extensively known, and therefore inserted an account of it in his book. See No. 163. The two vessels A B, of any shape, are made air tight. The top of the upper one is formed into a dish or basin ; in the centre of which the jet pipe is inserted, its lower end extending to near the bottom of A : a pipe C, whose upper orifice is soldered to the basin extends down to near the bottom of the lower vessel, either passing through the top of B, as in the figure, or inserted at the side. Another pipe D is con- nected to the top of B, and continued to the upper part of A. This pipe conducts the air from B to A. Now suppose the vessel A filled with water, through an aperture made for the purpose, and which is then -closed ; the object is to make this water ascend through the jet, and it is accomplished thus : — water is poured into the basin, and of course it runs down the pipe C into B ; and as it rises in the latter, the air within is ne- cessarily compressed, and having no way to escape but up the pipe D, it ascends into the upper part of A, where being pressed on the surface of Chap. 9.] Heron's Fountain. 361 m A the water, the latter is compelled to ascend through the jet pipe, as shown in the cut. The water thus forced out, falls back into the basin, and run- ning down C into B continues the play of the machine, until all the water in A is expended. The elevation to which water in A can be thus raised through a tube, will be equal to the perpen- dicular distance between the two orifices of C. To per- sons who are ignorant of the construction of these foun- tains, the water in the basin appears to descend, and to rise again through the jet. Such is not the fact; were it so, this machine would be a perpetual motion, or something very like one. Some persons beguiled by the apparent possibility of inducing it to ascend, have attempted the so- lution of that problem by a similar apparatus. We may as well confess that in our youth we were of the number. The younger Pliny seems to have fallen into the same mistake respecting a fountain belonging to his country seat. Portable fountains of this kind might be adopted as ap- propriate appendages to flower gardens, and even drawing rooms. The pipes might be concealed within, or modeled into a handsome column, whose pedestal formed the lower vessel, while the upper end assumed the figure of a vase. Such an addition to the furniture of an apartment would be a useful acquisition at those seasons when the atmos- phere, glowing like the air of an oven, scorches our bodies during the day, and in the evening we gasp in vain for the cooling breeze : at such times a minute stream of water spouting and sparkling in a room would soon allay the heat and invigorate our drooping spirits — imparting the refreshing coolness of autumn amid the burning heats of summer; and if the liquid were perfumed with attar of roses, or oil of lavender, we might realize the most innocent and delicious of oriental luxuries. The play of such a fountain might be continued for two or three hours at a time, for the size of the stream need hardly exceed that of a thread, and by a slight modification, the jet could be renewed as often as the upper vessel was emptied, by simply inverting the machine : or, the whole might be arranged without, except the ajutage and the vase in which the jet played. (See remarks on fountains in the fifth book.) This fountain has been named a toy, but it is by such toys that impor- tant discoveries have been made in every age. It is clearly no rude or imperfect device : not a first thought ; on the contrary, it bears the evi- dence of a matured machine, and of being the result of a familiar acquaint- ance with the principles upon which its action depends. Unlike older hydraulic machines, it requires no distinct vessel within which to raise a a liquid ; nor does it resemble pumps, since neither cylinders, suckers, valves or levers are required, nor any external force to keep it in motion. Its invention may be considered as having opened a new era in the his- tory of machines for raising water, for it is susceptible of an almost endless variety of modifications, and of being applied to a great number of pur- poses. To understand this it is only necessary to bear in mind that the relative position of the two columns is immaterial : they may be a mile distant from each other, or they may be nearly together. The one that raises the other may be above, below, or on a level with the latter ; both may be conveyed in pipes along or under the surface of the ground, and in any direction : the only condition required is, that the perpendicular 46 No. 163. Heron's Fountain. Presmre Engine at Chemnitz. [Book III distance between the upper and lower orifices of the pipe in which the motive column flows, shall be equal to the force required to raise the other to the proposed elevation. A pressure engine on the principle of Heron's fountain, erected by M. Hoell in 1755, to raise water from one of the mines in Hungary, has long been celebrated. In the vicinity of one of the shafts at Chemnitz, there is a hill upon which is a spring of water, one hundred and forty feet above the mouth of the shaft. This spring furnishes more water than that which rises at the bottom of the mine, which is one hundred and four feet below the mouth of the shaft. The water in the mine is raised by means of that on the hill by an apparatus similar to the one figured in the annexed cut. A represents a strong copper vessel eight feet and a half high, five feet diameter, and two inches thick. A large cock marked 3 is inserted near the bottom, and a smaller one 2 near the top. From this vessel a pipe D, two inches in dia- meter, reaches down and is connected to the top of the vessel B at the bottom of the shaft. This vessel is smaller than the upper one, being six feet and a half high, four feet diameter, and two inches thick, and of the same material as the other. A pipe E, four inches diameter, rises from near the bottom of B to the surface of the ground, where it discharges the water. The pipe C conveys the water from the spring on the hill ; it is also four inches diameter, and descends to near the bottom of A. It is furnished with a cock 1. Water is admitted into B through a cock 4, or a valve opening inwards, which closes when B is filled. The vessel A is sup- posed to be empty, or rather filled with air, and its two cocks shut. The cock 1 is then opened, when the water rushing into A con- denses the air within it and the pipe D, and this air pressing on the water in B, forces it up the pipe E. As soon as it ceases to flow through E, the cock 1 is shut and 2 and 3 are opened, when the water in A is discharged at 3. The cock or valve at the bottom of B is opened, and the water entering drives the air up D into A where it escapes at 2. The operation is then repeated as before. If, when water ceases to run at E, the cock 2 be opened, both water and air rush out of it together, and with such violence that the liquid is, by the generation of cold consequent on the sudden expansion of the con- densed air, converted into hail or pellets of ice. This fact is generally shown to strangers, who are usually invited to hold their hats in front of the cock so as to receive the blast ; when the hail issues with such violence, as frequently to pierce the hats, like pistol bullets. This mode of pro- ducing ice was known to the marquis of Worcester, who refers to it in the eighteenth proposition of hisCentury of Inventions, relating to an "artifi- cial fountain, holding great quantity of water, and of force sufficient to make snow, ice, and thunder." Some additions to the machine at Chem- nitz, by which it might be rendered self-acting, were proposed in 1796. They consisted of small vessels suspended from levers that were secured No. 164. Pressure Engine at Chemnitz. Chap. 9.] Wirtz's Pump. 363 to the shanks of the cocks, which they opened and shut in the same man- ner as shown in No. 160. A similar contrivance may be seen in several old authors — it is in the Spiritalia: Decaus, Fludd, Moxon and Switzer have all given figures of it. The quantity of water raised from the shaft compared with that expended from the spring was as 42 to 100. By arranging a series of vessels above each other and connecting them by pipes as in No. 163, water may be raised to almost any height, in lo- cations that have the advantage of a small fall. The distance between the vessels not exceeding the perpendicular descent of the motive column, which last is made to transmit its force to each vessel in succession — forc- ing the contents of one into the next above, and so on. Such a machine is interesting as showing the extent to which the principle of Heron's fountain may be applied, but for practical purposes it is of little value. It is too complex (if made self-acting) and too expensive for common use ; and it is far inferior to the water ram. It was described by Dr. Darwin, in his Phytologia, to which modern writers generally refer, but it is an old aifair. It is figured by Moxon in his "Mechanick Powers," Lon. 1696, and is mentioned by older authors. It is substantially the same as the double fountain of Heron, as found in the Spiritalia and the works of most writers on hydraulics. By far the most novel and interesting modification of Heron's fountain was devised in the year 1746 by H. A. Wirtz, a Swiss pewterer or tin- plate worker of Zurich. It is sometimes named a spiral pump, and was made to raise water for a dye house in the vicinity of that city. What the circumstances were that led Wirtz to its invention we are not informed — whether it was suggested by some incident, or was the result of reasoning alone. It is represented in the illustrations Nos. 165 and 166, the first being a section and the latter an external view. No. 165. Section of Wirtz's Pump. No. 166. View of Wirtz's Pump. Wirtz's machine consists either of a helical or a spiral pipe. As the former it is coiled round in one plane as A B C D E F in No. 165. As a spiral it is arranged round the circumference of a cone or cylinder, and then resembles the worm of a still. The interior end at Or is united by a water tight joint to the ascending pipe H. See No. 166. The open end 364 Wirtz'a Pump. [Book III, of the coil is enlarged so as to form a scoop. When the machine, im- mersed in water as represented, is turned in the direction of the arrow, the water in the scoop, as the latter emerges, passes along the pipe driv- ing the air before it into G H, where it escapes. At the next revolution both air and water enter the scoop ; the water is driven along the tube as before, but is separated from the first portion by a column of air of nearly equal length. By continuing the motion of the machine another portion of water and another of air will be introduced. The body of water in each coil will have both its ends horizontal, and the included air will be of about its natural density; but as the diameters of the coils dimmish to- wards the centre, the column of water which occupied a semicircle in the outer coil, will occupy more and more of the inner ones as they approach the centre G, till there will be a certain coil, of which it will occupy a complete turn. Hence it will occupy more than the entire space within this coil, and consequently the water will run back over the top of the succeeding coil, into the right hand side of the next one and push the water within it backwards and raise the other end. As soon as the water rises in the pipe G H, the escape of air is prevented when the scoop takes in its next quantity of water. Here, then, are two columns of water acting against each other by hydrostatic pressure, and the intervening co- lumn of air. They must compress the air between them, and the water and air columns will now be unequal. This will have a general tendency to keep the whole water back and cause it to be higher on the left or ris- ing side of each coil, than on the other. The excess of height will be just such as produces the compression of the air between that arid the preced- ing column of water. This will go on increasing as the water mounts in H. Now at whatever height the water in H may be, it is evident that the air in the small column next to it will always be compressed with the weight of the water in H — an equal force must therefore be exerted by the water in the coils to support the column in H. This force is the sum of all the differences between the elevation of the inner ends of the water in each coil above the outer ends ; and the height to which the water will rise in H will be just equal to this sum. Dr. Gregory observes that the principles on which the theory of this machine depends are confessedly intricate ; but when judiciously constructed, it is very powerful and effec- tive in its operation. It has not been ascertained whether the helical or spiral form is best. Some of these machines were erected in Florence in 1778. In 1784, one was made at Archangelsky, that raised a hogshead of water in a minute to an elevation of seventy-four feet, and through a pipe seven hundred and sixty feet long. See Gregory's Mechanics, vol. ii. It perhaps may facilitate an understanding of this curious machine, by remarking that the pressure exerted by the column of water in one side of each coil is proportioned to its length, and that this pressure is transmit- ted, through the column of air between them, to that of the next: the com- bined force of both is then made to act, by the revolution of the tubes, upon the third column, and so on, till the accumulated force of them all is communicated to the water in H ; and hence the elevation to which water can be thus raised, can never exceed the sum of the altitudes of the liquid columns in the coils. END OP THE THIRD BOOK. BOOK IV. MACHINES FOR RAISING WATER, (CHIEFLY OF MODERN ORIGIN1 INCLUDING EARLY APPLICATIONS OF STEAM FOR THAT PURPOSE. CHAPTER I. DEVICES of the lower animals — Some animals aware that force is increased by the space through which a body moves — Birds drop shell fish from great elevations to break the shells — Death of ^Eschylus — Combats between the males of sheep and goats — Military ram of the ancients — Water rams — Waves —Momentum acquired by running water— Examples — Whitehurst's machine— Hydraulic ram of Moiit- golfier — " Canne hydraulique" and its modifications. OF the machines appropriated to the fourth division of this work, (see page 8,) centrifugal pumps and a few others have already been described. There remain to be noticed, the water ram, canne hydraulique, and de- vices for raising water by means of steam and other elastic fluids. If the various operations of the lower animals were investigated, a thou- sand devices that are practised by man would be met with, and probably a thousand more of which we yet know nothing. Even the means by which they defend themselves and secure their food or their prey, are calculated to impart useful information. Some live by stratagem, laying concealed till their unsuspecting victims approach within reach — others dig pitfalls to entrap them ; and others again fabricate nets to entangle them, and coat the threads with a glutinous substance resembling the birdlime of the fowler. Some species distill poison and slay their victims by infusing it into their blood; while others, relying on their muscular energy, suffocate their prey in their embraces and crush both body and bones into a pulpy mass. The tortoise draws himself into his shell as into a fortress and bids defiance to his foes; and the porcupine erects around his body an array of bayonets from which his enemies retire with dread. The strength of the ox, the buffalo and rhinoceros is in their necks, and which they apply with resistless force to gore and toss their enemies. The elephant by his weight treads his foes to death ; and the horse by a kick inflicts a wound that is often as fatal as the bullet of a rifle ; the space through which his foot passes, adding force to the blow. There are numerous proofs of some of the lower animals being aware that the momentum of a moving body is increased by the space through which it falls. Of several species of birds which feed on shell fish, some, when unable to crush the shells with their bills, carry them up in the air, and let them drop that they may be broken by the fall. (The Athe- nian poet ^Eschylus, it is said, was killed by a tortoise that an eagle drop- ped upon his bald head, which the bird, it is supposed, mistook for a stone.) 366 Momentum of Running Water. [Book IV When the males of sheep or goats prepare to butt, they always recede backwards to some distance ; and then rushing impetuously forward, (ac- cumulating force as they go,) bring their foreheads in contact with a shock that sometimes proves fatal to both. The ancients, perhaps, from witness ing the battles of these animals, constructed military engines to act on the same principle. A ponderous beam was suspended at the middle by chains, and one end impelled, by the united efforts of a number of men at the op- posite end, against walls which it demolished with slow but sure effect. The battering end was generally, and with the Greeks and Romans uni- formly, protected by an iron or bronze cap in the form of a ram's head ; and the entire instrument was named after that animal. It was the most destructive of all their war machinery — no building, however solid, could long withstand its attacks. Plutarch, in his life of Anthony, mentions one eighty feet in length. The action of the ram is familiar to most people, but it may not be known to all that similar results might be produced by a liquid as by a solid — that a long column of water moving with great velocity might be made equally destructive as a beam of wood or iron — yet so it is. Waves of the sea act as water-rams against rocks or other barriers that impede their progress, and when their force is increased by storms of wind, the most solid structures give way before them. The old lighthouse on the Eddy- stone rocks was thus battered down during a storm in 1703, when the engineer, Mr. Winstanley, and all his people, perished. The increased force that water acquires when its motion is accelerated, might be shown by a thousand examples : a bank or trough that easily retains it when at rest, or when slightly moved, is often insufficient when its velocity is greatly increased. When the deep lock of a canal is opened to transfer a boat or a ship to a lower level, the water is permitted to de- scend by slow degrees : were the gates opened at once, the rushing mass would sweep the gates below before it, or the greater portion would be carried in the surge quite over them — and perhaps the vessel also. A sluggish stream drops almost perpendicularly over a precipice, but the mo- mentum of a rapid one shoots it over, and leaves, as at Niagara, a wide space between. It is the same with a stream issuing from a horizontal tube — if the liquid pass slowly through, it falls inertly at the orifice, but if its velocity be considerable, the jet is carried to a distance ere it touches the ground. The level of a great part of Holland is below the surface of the sea, and the dykes are in some parts thirty feet high : whenever a leak occurs, the greatest efforts are made to repair it immediately, and for the obvious reason that the aperture keeps enlarging and the liquid mass behind is put in motion towards it; thus the pressure is increased and, if the leak be not stopped, keeps increasing till it bears with irresistable force all obstructions away. A fatal example is recorded in the ancient history of Holland : — an ignorant burgher, near Dort, to be revenged on a neighbour, dug a hole through the dyke opposite the house of the latter, intending to close it after his neighbor's property had been destroyed ; but the water rushed through with an accelerating force, till all resistance was vain, and the whole country became deluged. The ancients were well aware of this accumulation of force in running waters. Allusions to it are very common among the oldest writers, and various maxims of life were drawn from it. The beginning of strife, says Solomon, " is as when one letteth out water" — the " breach of waters" — " breaking forth of waters" — "rushing of mighty waters," &c. are frequently mentioned, to indicate the irresistable influence of desolating evils when once admitted. That the force which a running stream thus acquires may be made to Chap. 1.] Hydraulic Ram. 367 drive a portion of the liquid far above the source whence it flows, is obvi- ous from several operations in nature. During a storm of wind, long swelling waves in the open sea alternately rise and fall, without the crests or tops of any being elevated much above those of the rest; but when they meet from opposite directions, or when their progress is suddenly arrested by the bow of a ship, by rocks, or other obstacles, part of the water is driven to great elevations. There is a fine example of this at the Eddystone rocks — the heavy swells from the Bay of Biscay and from the Atlantic, roll in and break with inconceivable fury upon them, so that vo- lumes of water are thrown up with terrific violence, and the celebrated light-house sometimes appears from this cause like the pipe of a fountain enclosed in a stupendous jet d'eau. The light room in the old light-house was sixty feet above the sea, and it was often buried in the waves, so im- mense \vere the volumes of water thrown over it. The hydraulic ram raises water on precisely the same principle : a quantity of the liquid is set in motion through an inclined tube, and its es- cape from the lower orifice is made suddenly to cease, when the momen- tum of the moving mass drives up, like the waves, a portion of its own volume to an elevation much higher than that from which it descended. This may be illustrated by an experiment familiar to most people. Sup- 11 -r> f i i i pose the lower ormce ot a tube (whose upper one is connected to a reser- voir of water) be closed with the finger, and a very minute stream be al- lowed to escape from it in an upward direction — the tiny jet would rise nearly to the surface of the reservoir ; it could not, of course, ascend higher — but if the finger were then moved to one side so as to allow a free escape till the whole contents of the tube were rapidly moving to the exit, and the orifice then at once contracted or closed as before, the jet would dart far above the reservoir; for in addition to the hydrostatic pres- sure which drove it up in the first instance, there would be a new force acting upon it, derived from the motion of the water. As in the case of a hammer of a few pounds weight, when it rests on the anvil it exerts a pressure on the latter with a force due to its weight only, but when put in motion by the hand of the smith, it descends with a force that is equiva- lent to the pressure of perhaps a ton. Every person accustomed to draw water from pipes that are supplied from very elevated sources, must have observed, when the cocks or dis- charging orifices are suddenly closed, ajar or tremor communicated to the pipes, and a snapping sound like that from smart blows of a hammer. These effects are produced by blows which the ends of the pipes receive from the water; the liquid particles in contact with the plug of a cock, when it is turned to stop the discharge, being forcibly driven up against it by those constituting the moving mass behind. The philosophical instrument named a water hammer illustrates this fact. The effect is much the same as if a solid rod moved with the same velocity as the water through the tube until its progress was stopped in the same manner, except that its mo- mentum would be concentrated on that point of the pipe against which it struck, whereas with the liquid rod the momentum would be communi- cated equally to, and might be transmitted from any part of, the lower end of the tube; hence it often occurs that the ends of such pipes, when made of lead, are swelled greatly beyond their original dimensions. We have seen some J of an inch bore, become enlarged to 1 J inches before they were ruptured. At a hospital in Bristol, England, a plumber was employed to convey water through a leaden pipe from a cistern in one of the upper stories to the kitchen below, and it happened that the lower end of the tube was bnrst nearly every time the cock was used. After several at- 368 WUtehursCs Water-Ram. [Book IV. tempts to remedy the evil, it was determined to solder one end of a smaller pipe immediately behind the cock, and to carry the other end to as high a level as the water in the cistern; and now it was found that on shutting the cock the pipe did not burst as before, but a jet of considerable height was forced from the upper end of this new pipe : it therefore became ne- cessary to increase its height to prevent water escaping from it — upon which it was continued to the top of the hospital, being twice the height of the supplying cistern, but where to the great surprise of those who constructed the work, some water still issued : a cistern was therefore placed to receive this water, which was found very convenient, since it was thus raised to the highest floors of the building without any extra labor. Here circumstances led the workmen to the construction of a water- ram without knowing that such a machine had been previously devised. The first person who is known to have raised water by a ram, designed for the purpose was, Mr. Whitehurst, a watchmaker of Derby, in England. He erected a machine similar to the one represented by the next figure, in 1772. A description of it was forwarded by him to the Royal Society, and published in vol. Iv, of their Transactions. No. 167. Whitehurst's Wator-Ram. A, represents the spring or reservoir, the surface of the water in which was of about the same level as the bottom of the cistern B. The main pipe from A to the cock at the end of C, was nearly six hundred feet in length, and one and a half inches bore. The cock was sixteen feet below A, and furnished water for the kitchen offices, &c. When it was opened the liquid column in A C was put in motion, and acquired a velocity due to a fall of sixteen feet; and as soon as the cock was shut, the momentum of this long column opened the valve, upon which part of the water rushed into the air-vessel and up the vertical pipe into B. This effect took place every time the cock was used, and as water was drawn from it at short intervals for household purposes, " from morning till night — all the days in the year," an abundance was raised into B, without any exertion or expense. Such was the first water-ram. As an original device, it is highly honor- able to the sagacity and ingenuity of its author ; and the introduction of an air vessel, without which all apparatus of the kind could never be made durable, strengthens his claims upon our regard. In this machine he has shown that the mere act of drawing water from long tubes for ordinary purposes, may serve to raise a portion of their contents to a higher level ; an object that does not appear to have been previously attempted, or even thought of. The device also exhibits another mode, besides that by pressure engines, of deriving motive force from liquids thus drawn, and consequently opens another way by which the immense power ex- pended in raising water for the supply of cities, may again be given Chap. 1.] Montgolfier's Ram. 369 out with the liquid from the lateral pipes. Notwithstanding the advan- tages derived from such an apparatus, under circumstances similar to those indicated by the figure, it does not appear to have elicited the at- tention of engineers, nor does Whitehurst himself seem to have been aware of its adaptation as a substitute for forcing pumps, in locations where the water drawn from the cock was not required, or could not be used. Had he pursued the subject, it is probable the idea of opening and closing the cock (by means of the water that escaped) with some such apparatus as figured in No. 160, would have occurred to him, and then his machine being made self-acting, would have been applicable in a thousand loca- tions. But these additions were not made, and the consequence was, that the invention was neglected, and but for the one next to be described, it would most likely have passed into oblivion, like the steam machines of Branca, Kircher, and Decaus, till called forth by the application of the same principle in more recent devices. Wheiiever we peruse accounts of the labors of ingenious men, in search of new discoveries in science or the arts, sympathy leads us to rejoice at their success and to grieve at their failure : like the readers of a well written novel who enter into the views, feelings and hopes of the hero ; realize his disappointments, partake of his pleasures, and become interested in his fate ; hence something like regret comes over us, when an indus- trious experimenter, led by his researches to the verge of an important discovery, is, by some circumstance diverted (perhaps temporarily) from it ; and a more fortunate or more sagacious rival steps in and bears off the prize from his grasp — a prize, which a few steps more would have put him in possession of. Thus Whitehurst with the water-ram, like Papin with the steam-engine, discontinued his researches at the most interesting point — at the very turning of the tide that would have carried him to the goal ; and hence the fruit of both their labors has contributed but to en- hance the glory of their successors. The Belier hydraulique of Moritgolfier was invented in 1796. (Its au- thor was a French paper maker, and the same gentleman who, in conjunc- tion with his brother, invented balloons in 1782.) Although it is on the principle of Whitehurst's machine, its invention is believed to have been entirely independent of the latter. But if it were even admitted that Montgolfier was acquainted with what Whitehurst had done, still he has, by his improvements, made the ram entirely his own. He found it a comparatively useless device, and he rendered it one of the most efficient — it was neglected or forgotten, and he not only revived it, but gave it a permanent place among hydraulic machines, and actually made it the most interesting of them all. It was, previous to his time, but an embryo; when, like another Prometheus, he not only wrought it into shape and beauty, but imparted to it, as it were, a principle of life, that rendered its movements self-acting ; for it requires neither the attendance of man, nor any thing else, to keep it in play, but the momentum of the water it is employed to elevate. Like the organization of animal life, and the me- chanism by which the blood circulates, the pulsations of this admirable machine incessantly continue day and night, for months and years; while nothing but a deficiency of the liquid, or defects in the apparatus can in- duce it to stop. It is, compared to Whitehurst's, what the steam-engine of Watt is to that of Savary or Newcomen. Montgolfier positively denied having borrowed the idea from any one — he claimed the invention as wholly his own, and there is no reason what- ever to question his veracity. The same discoveries have often been, and still are, made in the same and in distant countries, independently of each 47 370 Montgolfier's [Book IV other. It is a common occurrence, and from the constitution of the hu- man mind will always be one. A patent was taken out in England for self-acting rams in 1797 by Mr. Boulton, the partner of Watt, and as no reference was made in the specification to Montgolfier, many persons ima- gined them to be of English origin, a circumstance that elicited some re- marks from their author. " Cette invention (says Montgolfier) n'est point d'origine Anglaise, elle appartient toute entiere a la France; je declare que j'en suis le seul inventeur, et que 1'idee ne m'en a ete fournie par personne ; il est vrai qu'un de mes amis a fait passer, avec mon agrement, a MM. Watt et Boulton, copie de plusieurs dessins que j'avais faits de cette machine, avec un memoire detaille sur ses applications. Ce sont ccs memcs dessins qui ont ete fidelement copies dans la patente prise par M. Boulton a Londres, en date du 13 Decembre 1797 ; ce qui est line verite dont il est bien eloigne de disconvenir, ainsi que le respectable M. Watt." We have inserted this extract from Hachette, because we really supposed on reading the specification of Boulton's patent in the Repertory of Arts, (for 1798, vol. ix,) that the various modifications of the ram there des- cribed were the invention of that gentleman. The patent was granted to " Matthew Boulton, for his invention of improved apparatus and methods for raising water and other fluids." No. 168. Monteolfier'a Ram. No. 169. The same. No. 168 represents a simple form of Montgolfier's ram. The motive column descends from a spring or brook A through the pipe B, near the end of which an air chamber D, and rising main F, are attached to it as shown in the cut. At the extreme end of B, the orifice is opened and closed by a valve E, instead of the cock in No. 167. This valve opens downwards and may either be a spherical one as in No. 168, or a common spindle one as in No. 169. It is the play of this valve that renders the machine self-acting. To accomplish this, the valve is made of, or loaded with, such a weight as just to open when the water in B is at rest ; i. e. it must be so heavy as to overcome the pressure against its under side when closed, as represented at No. 169. Now suppose this valve open as in No. 168, the water flowing through B soon acquires an additional force that carries up the valve against its seat ; then, as in shutting the cock of Whitehurst's machine, a portion of the water will enter and rise in F, the valve of the air chamber preventing its return. When this has taken place the water in B has been brought to rest, and as in that state its pressure is insufficient to sustain the weight of the valve, E opens ; (descends) the water in B is again put in motion, and again it closes E as before, when another portion is driven into the air vessel and pipe F ; and thus the Chap. l.J Water-Ram. 371 operation is continued, as long as the spring affords a sufficient supply and the apparatus remains in order. The surface of the water in the spring or source should always be kept at the same elevation, so that its pressure against the valve E may always be uniform — otherwise the weight of E would have to be altered as the surface of the spring rose and fell. This beautiful machine may be adapted to numerous locations in every country. When the perpendicular fall from the spring to the valve E is but a few feet, and the water is required to be raised to a considerable height through F, then, the length of the ram or pipe B, must be in- creased, and to such an extent that the water in it is not forced back into the spring when E closes, which will always be the case if B is not of sufficient length. Mr. Millington, who erected several in England, justly observes that a very insignificant pressing column is capable of raising a very high ascending one, so that a sufficient fall of water may be obtained in almost every running brook, by damming the upper end to produce the -eservoir, and carrying the pipe down the natural channel of the stream until a sufficient fall is obtained. In this way a ram has been made to raise one hundred hogsheads of water in twenty-four hours to a perpendicular height of one hundred and thirty-four feet, by a fall of only four feet and a half. M. Fischer of Schaff hausen, constructed a water-ram in the form of a beautiful antique altar, nearly in the style of that of Esculapius, as represented in various engravings. A basin about six inches in depth, and from eighteen to twenty inches in diameter, received the water that formed the motive column. This water flowed through pipes three inches in di- ameter that descended in a spiral form into the base of the altar ; on the valve opening a third of the water escaped, and the rest was forced up to a castle several hundred feet above the level of the Rhine. A long tube laid along the edge of a rapid river, as the Niagara above the falls, or the Mississippi, might thus be used instead of pumps, water wheels, steam-engines and horses, to raise the water over the highest banks and supply inland towns, however elevated their location might be ; and there is scarcely a farmer in the land but who might, in the absence of other sources, furnish his dwelling and barns with \vater in the same way, from a brook, creek, rivulet or pond. If a ram of large dimensions, and made like No, 168, be used to raise water to a great elevation, it would be subject to an inconvenience that would soon destroy the beneficial effect of the air chamber. When speak- ing of the air vessels of fire-engines, in the third book, we observed that if air be subjected to great pressure in contact with water, it in time be- comes incorporated with or absorbed by the latter. As might be supposed, the same thing occurs in water-rams ; as these when used are inces- santly at work both day and night. To remedy this, Montgolfier ingeni- ously adapted a very small valve (opening inwards) to the pipe beneath the air chamber, and which was opened and shut by the ordinary action of the machine. Thus, when the flow of the water through B is suddenly stop- ped by the valve E, a partial vacuum is produced immediately below the air chamber by the recoil of the water, at which instant the small valve opens and a portion of air enters and supplies that which the water ab- sorbs. Sometimes this snifting valve, as it has been named, is adapted to another chamber immediately below that which forms the reservoir of air, as at B in No. 169. In small rams a sufficient supply is found to enter at the valve E. Although air chambers or vessels are not, strictly speaking, constituent elements of water-rams, they are indispensable to the permanent operation 372 Canne Hydraulique [Book IV. of these machines. Without them, the pipes would soon be ruptured by the violent concussion consequent on the sudden stoppage of the efflux of the motive column. They perform a similar part to that of the bags of wool, &c. which the ancients, when besieged, interposed between their walls and the battering rams of the besiegers, in order to break the force of the blows. The ram has also been used in a few cases to raise water by atmos- pheric pressure from a lower level, so as to discharge it at the same level with the motive column or even higher. See Siphon Ram, in next book. The device by which Montgolh'er made the ram self-acting, is one of the neatest imaginable. It is unique : there never was any thing like it in practical hydraulics, or in the whole range of the arts ; and its simpli- city is equal to its novelty, and useful effects. Perhaps it may be said that he only added a valve to Whitehurst's machine : be it so — but that sim- ple valve instantly changed, as by magic, the whole character of the ap- paratus— like the mere change of the cap, which transformed the Leech Hakim into Saladin.* And the emotions of Cceur de Lion, upon finding his great adversary had been his physician in disguise, were not more ex- quisite than those, which an admirer of this department of philosophy ex- periences, when he contemplates for the first time the metamorphosis of the English machine by the French Savan. The name of Montgolfier will justly be associated with this admirable machine in future ages. When all political and ecclesiastical crusaders are forgotten, and the me- mories of all who have hewed a passage to notoriety merely by the sword, will be detested — the name of its inventor will be embalmed in the recol- lections of an admiring posterity. The water cane, or canne hydraulique, raises water in a different man- ner from any apparatus yet described. A modification of it in miniature has long been employed in the lecture room, but it is seldom met with in descriptions of hydraulic machines. It is represented at No. 170 ; and consists of a vertical tube, in out- ward appearance like a walking cane, having a valve opening up- wards at the bottom, and placed in the liquid to be raised. Sup- pose the lower end twelve or fif- teen inches below the surface, the water of course would enter through the valve and stand at the same height within as with- out : now if the tube were raised quickly, but not entirely out of the water, the valve would close and the liquid within would be carried up with it ; and if, when the tube was at the highest point of the stroke, its motion was sud- denly reversed (by jerking it back) the liquid column within would still continue to ascend until the momentum imparted to it at the first was expended ; hence a va- cuity would be left in the lower part of the instrument into which a fresh portion of water would enter, and by repeating the operation the • Walter Scott's Tales of the Cru&aders. No. 170 No. 171 No. 172. Chap. l.| And its Modifications. 373 tube would become filled, and a jet of water would then be thrown from the upper orifice at every stroke. This effect obviously depends upon the rapidity with which the instrument is worked, i. e. a sufficient velocity must be given to the water by the upward stroke to prevent it descend- ing, till the tube again reaches the lowest point, and consequently receives another supply of water. The instrument should be straight and the bore smooth and uniform, that the liquid may glide through with the least pos- sible obstruction. As its length must be equal to the elevation to which the water is to be raised, it is necessarily of limited application, and espe- cially so since the whole (both water and apparatus) has to be lifted at every stroke — not merely the liquid that is discharged, but the whole contents of the machine. By making the upper part of the tube slide within another that is fixed, a short part only of the apparatus might then be moved, and by connect- ing an air chamber as in No. 171, a continual stream from the discharging orifice might be produced. A stuffing box should be adapted to the end of the fixed tube. Hachette suggested the application of a spring pole (like those used in old lathes) to communicate the quick reciprocating mo- tion which these machines require. No. 172 represents another form of the instrument. Two spiral tubes •coiled round in opposite directions are secured to and moved by a verti- cal shaft. Their upper ends are united and terminate in one discharging orifice; the lower ones are enlarged, and each has a valve or clack opening inwards to retain the water that enters. By means of the handle A, which is mortised to the shaft, an alternating circular motion is im- parted to the whole, and the water thereby raised through these coiled tubas on precisely the same principle as through the perpendicular ones just described. Thus, when the handle is moved either to the right hand or to the left, one valve closes, and the water within receives an impulse that continues its motion along the tube after the movement of the latter is reversed .; and by the time its momentum is expended a fresh portion of water has entered that prevents its return. In this manner all the coils become filled, and then every additional supply that -enters below drives before it an equal portion from the orifice above. This machine, there- fore differs from Nos. 170 and 171 only, in being adapted to a horizon- tal instead of a perpendicular movement. Each tube in the figure forms a distinct machine, and should be considered without reference to the other Their discharging orifices are united to show how a constant jet may be produced. By making the upper part turn in a stuffing box in the bottom of a fixed tube, as in No. 171, water might then be raised higher than the movable part of the apparatus. That property by which all bodies tend to continue either in a state of rest or motion, viz : inertia, increases the effect of these machines, for when the momentum imparted to the liquid in the tubes is exhausted, inertia alone prevents it from instantaneously flowing back, and hence there is time for an additional portion of water to enter at the valve. The action of the eanne hydraulique is similar to that by which persons throw water &c. &c. streams and flashes of fire could be made to shoot from any or every part of the figure. Enough is known to convince us that such things were often done. Notwithstanding all the care of the Cap. 3.] Yuster, a Steam Deity of the Germans. 399 old priests to conceal, and when concealment was impracticable to des- troy their apparatus, some specimens of their machinery have come down. In the fifteenth or early part of the sixteenth century, an eoiipilic idol of the ancient Germans was found in making some excavations, and is we believe still extant. A figure of it is inserted in the second volume of Montfaucon's Antiquities. It is made of a peculiar species of bronze and is between three and four feet in height, and the body two and a half in circumference. Its appearance is very uncouth. It is without drapery, with one knee on the ground, the right hand on the head, and the left, which is broken off, rested upon the thigh. The cavity for the liquid holds about seven gallons, and there are two openings for the escape of the vapor, one at the mouth and the other in the forehead. These openings were stopped with plugs of wood, and the priests had secret means of applying the fire. It appears from Weber and other German writers on the subject that this idol was made to express various passions of the deity it represented, with a view to extort offerings and sacrifi- ces from the deluded worshippers; and that the liquid was inflammable. When the demands of the priests were not complied with, the ire of the god was expressed by sweat (steam) oozing from all parts of hi? body ; and if the people still remained obdurate, his fury became terrible : murmurs, bellowing*, and even thunderbolts (the wooden plugs) burst from him ; flashes or streams of fire rushed from his mouth and head, and presently he was enveloped in clouds of smoke; when the people, horror stricken, consented to comply with the requisitions. It is very evident from the accounts that the priests had the means of rapidly increasing or diminish- ing the intensity of the fire, as the disposition of the worshippers required the idol to express approbation or displeasure. It further appears that the monks in the middle ages made use of this idol, and found it not the least effectual of their wonder-working machines. It was in fact in this man- ner chiefly that the great body of ecclesiastics then maintained their in- fluence over the multitude. The very same devices which their prede- cessors had found effectual in the temples of Osiris, Ceres, and Bacchus, were repeated ; and such images of the heathen gods and goddesses as had escaped destruction were converted into those of Christian saints, and being repaired were made to perform the same miracles which they had done before in pagan Greece and Rome. Monks, as we have before observed, were then the most expert mechanicians, and some of their most elaborate productions were imitations of ancient androidii — and the speaking heads of Bacon, Robert of Lincoln, Gerbert and Albertus, were considered proofs of an intercourse subsisting between their owners and spirits, as much so as in the cases of Orpheus and Odin, and other magicians of old. The name of the German idol is written differently : Puster, Fluster, Plusterich, Buestard, Busterich, are all names given to it and the deity it represents. The name is said to be derived from the Saxon verb pusten, to blow — or puster, a bellows : this shows its connection with the eolipile as a " fire blower ; and it is probable that from these eoiipilic idols the term JEnlist, " a pretender to inspiration," is derived. (See Dictionary Trevoux. Art. Puster.) This ancient steam idol was, A. D. 1546, placed for safe keeping in the fortress of Sunderhausen, where it remained dur- ing the last century. How singular that steam should have been among the motive agents of the most ancient idols of Egypt (as the Statue of Memnon and others) and in some of the deified images of Europe ! That it should formerly have been employed with tremendous effect to delude men, to lock them 400 Eolipiles used in War. [Book IV. in ignorance ; while it now contributes so largely to enlighten and benefit mankind. These instances of early applications of steam make us regret that detailed descriptions of the various apparatus have not been preserved. Many ingenious devices were evidently employed, and although we con- demn the contrivers of such as were used for purposes of delusion, we cannot but admire the ingenuity which even these men displayed, in ex- hibiting before a barbarous people their gods in the most imposing man- ner and with such terrific effect — in making idols express by means of steam approbation and anger with the voice of thunder or the hissing of dragons, and causing them to appear and disappear in clouds of smoke and sheets of flame. It is probable from the antiquity of these idols and of eolipiles that allusions to both might be found in the Bible. May not such expressions as " the blast of his mouth," " the blast of the terrible ones," " the blast of his nostrils," &c. have reference to eolipiles or steam idols of old 1 " Their molten images [says Isaiah] are wind and confusion." Hospita- bly receiving a traveler into the house during a storm, and protecting him from the inconvenient heat of the fire when urged by an eolipile, may be alluded to by the same prophet in the following passage : " Thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a re- fuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the walls." The expression ' terrible ones/ probably referring to the hideous forms into which we have already seen those blowing instruments were moulded. Eolus the god of winds was represented " with swoln cheeks, like one who with main force blows a blast, with wings on his shoulders and a fiery countenance." Idols were always made of a terrific form, and are so made by barbarous peo- 'ple at the present day. When God is personified as blowing on the fire, is there not an allusion to these instruments *? Eusebius, in the third book of his life of Constantine, says that when images were subverted, among other things found in some of them were " small faggots of sticks" — perhaps the remains of fuel employed to raise steam in them.a From the observation of one of the early travelers into the East, it seems that eolipiles were employed even in war and with great effect. Carpini, in the account of his travels, A. D. 1286, describes a species of eolipile of the human form, and apparently charged with an inflammable liquid, as having been used in a battle between the Mongals and the troops of Prester John. The latter, he says, caused a number of hollow figures to be made of copper, which resembled men, and being charged with some combustible substance, " were set upon horses, each having a man behind on the horse with a pair of bellows, to stir up the fire. When approaching to give battle, these mounted images were first sent forward against the enemy, and the men who rode behind set fire by some means to the combustibles, and blew strongly with their bellows ; and the Mongal men and horses were burnt with wild fire and the air was dark- ened with smoke. "b Supposing these eolipiles to have been charged with alcohol or spirit of wine, they must have been (as we see they were) of terrible effect, since, as modern experiments show, a jet of flame from each might have extended to a distance of twenty-five or thirty feet. Besides blowing directly upon or against a fire, eolipiles were employed to increase the draft of chimneys, for which purpose the jet rose perpen- dicularly from the centre of the dome, as in No. 181. One or two stand- * Peter Martyr's Common Places, Part ii, 336. b Kerr's Collection of Voyages,vol. 1, 135. Chap. 3.] Music produced by Eolipiles. 401 ing on the hearth and heated by the fire, close to which they were placed, the vapor rushed through the orifice and drove the smoke before it ; and at the same time induced a current of atmospheric air to follow in the same direction. Sometimes those designed for this purpose had a handle or bail to suspend them over the fire, as No. 183. As several ancient domestic customs still prevail in Italy, and numerous culinary and other implements found in Herculaneum and Pompeii are similar to those now used, it might be supposed that some relics of eolipiles and their uses would be still met with in that country. The supposition has been veri- fied ; for we are informed that these instruments are, or were in the seventeenth century, " commonly made use of in Italy to cure smoaky chimneys, for being hung over the fire, the blast arising from them carries up the loitering smoke along with it" — and again, " an eolipile has been sometimes placed in a chimney where it can be heated, the vapor of which serves to drive the smoke up the chimney." This application of steam, it will be perceived, is similar to that lately adopted to increase the draft of chimneys of locomotive carriages. Rivius mentions another use of eolipiles. He says some were made of gold, silver and other costly metals, and were filled with scented water, " to cause a pleasant temperature, to refresh the spirit and rejoice the heart, not only of the healthy but also of the sick." He observes that they were used for these purposes in the halls and chambers of the wealthy. Rhenanus, an old German writer, who died in 1547, enumera- ting the treasures belonging to the ancient church at Mentz, mentions eolipiles in the form of " silver cranes, in the belly of which was put fire" and which gave out " a sweete savour of perfumes by the open beake." Seneca has observed that perfumes were sometimes disseminated in the amphitheatres, by being mixed with boiling water, so that the odor rose and was diffused by the steam. We learn from Shakespeare that perfum- ing rooms was common in his time, the neglect of cleanliness rendering such operations necessary. It is probable that he refers to the same pro- cess as that mentioned by Rivius. " Being entertained for a perfumer, as I was smoking a room." " Much ado about Nothing" Act 1, Scene 3. Eolipiles were also employed to produce music. By adapting trum- pets, flutes, clarionets, and other wind instruments to the neck or orifice of one, they were sounded as by currents of air. This application of eolipiles is probably coeval with their invention. It is indeed only a variation of the supposed musical apparatus of the Memnonian Statue, and of the devices described by Heron. All the old writers on eolipiles mention it. Fludd figures a variety of instruments sounded by currents of steam ; and Rivius, after noticing the use of eolipiles for blowing fires and fumigating rooms, observes "they are also made to produce music, the steam passing through reeds or organ pipes, so as to cause astonish- ment in those who have no idea of such wonderful operations." Gerbert applied eolipiles in place of bellows to sound an organ at Rheims in the tenth century ; and the instrument according to William of Malmsbury was extant two hundred years afterwards. (During the middle ages, the churchmen were the only organ makers ; and even so late as the sixteenth century, they retained the manufacture chiefly in their own hands : in the household book of Henry VIII. mention is made of two payments of ten pounds each to John, or " Sir John, the organ maker," of whom the editor says, ' it is almost certain that he was a priest.') The preceding notice of eolipiles is due to them as the true germ of modern steam engines, for such they were, whether the latter be consider- ed as devices for raising water only, or as machines to move others. We 51 402 Applications of Steam. [Book IV. have seen that the oldest apparatus moved by steam, of which there is any account, was an eolipile suspended on its axis, at once both boiler and engine, (No. 180) and we shall find that the first attempts to raise water by the same fluid were made with the same instruments. Indeed, all the early experiments on steam were made with eolipiles, and all the first steam machines were nothing else. CHAPTER IV. Employment of steam in former times — Claims of various people to the steam engine — Application of steam as a motive agent, perceived by Roger Bacon — Other modern inventions and discoveries known to him — Spanish steam-ship in 1543 — Official documents relating to it — Remarks on these — Antiquity of paddle-wheels as propellers — Project of the author for propelling vessels — Experiments on steam in the sixteenth century — Jerome Cardan — Vacuum formed by the condensation of steam, known to the Alchymists— Experiments from Fludd— Others from Porta— Expansive force of steam illustrated by old authors — Interesting example of raising water by steam from Porta — Mathesius, Canini and Besson — Device for raising hot water from Decaus — Invention of the steam engine claimed by Arajro for France — Nothing new in the apparatus of Decaus, nor in the principle of its operation — Hot springs — Geysers — Boilers with tubular spouts — Eolipiles — Observations on Decaus — Writings of Porta — Claims of Arago in behalf of Decaus untenable — Instances of hot water raised by steam in the arts — Manufacture of soap — Discovery of iodine — Ancient soap makers — Soap vats in Pompeii — Manipulations of ancient mechanics — Loss of ancient writings — Large sums anciently expended on soap — Logic of Omar. It will have been perceived from the preceding chapter that eolipiles for blowing fires and for other purposes were formerly common, and conse- quently that people were familiar with the generation of steam, and of high steam too, long before modern steam engines were known. Of the applications of this fluid to produce motion or raise liquids, during the long period that intervened between the time of Heron and the introduc- tion of printing into Europe, scarcely any thing is known ; yet there can be no doubt that it was occasionally used to a limited extent for one pur- pose or the other, and perhaps for both. As the origin and early progress of the steam engine are necessarily con- nected with this part of our subject, the inquisitive reader will not object to dwell a little upon it, although some parts of the detail do not relate directly to the elevation of liquids. From the important and increasing influence of the steam engine on human affairs, a controversy has arisen between writers of different na- tions respecting the claims of their countrymen to its' invention ; and some acrimonious feelings have been displayed. This is to be regretted as fostering prejudices and passions which it is the province of philosophers to eradicate — not to cherish. National vauntings may form articles in the creed, as they are made to contribute to the capital of politicians ; but should find no place in that of a savan. Philosophy, like Christianity, contemplates mankind as one family, and recognizes no sectional boast- ing. Neither science nor the arts are confined by degrees of longitude, nor are the scintillations of genius to be measured by degrees from the equator. As in the republic of letters, so in that of science and the arts, • Chap. 4.] Spanish Steam Ship in 1543. 403 geographical distinctions respecting the abode of its citizens should be unknown. • A few scattered relics of ingenious men who flourished in the dark ages are still extant, which serve to convince us that experimental re- searches of some of the monks and other ardent inquirers after knowledge in those times were more extensive, and evinced a more thorough ac- quaintance with the principles of natural philosophy, than is generally surmised. The following remarks of Roger Bacon are an instance. From them we may safely infer that he was aware of the elastic force of steam and its applicability to propel vessels on water and carriages on land. That he was acquainted with gunpowder is generally admitted, and it would seem that neither diving bells nor suspension bridges escaped him: " Men may construct for the wants of navigation such machines that the greatest vessels, directed by a single man, shall cut through the rivers and seas with more rapidity than if they were propelled by rowers ; chariots may be constructed which, without horses, shall run with immea- surable speed. Men may conceive machines which could bear the diver, without danger, to the depth of the waters. Men could invent a multi- tude of other engines and useful instruments, such as bridges that shall span the broadest rivers without any intermediate support. Art has its thunders more terrible than those of heaven. A small quantity of matter produces a horrible explosion, accompanied by a bright light ; and this may be repeated so as to destroy a city or entire battalions." Bacon was not a man to speak or write in this manner at random. His experiments led him to the conclusions he has thus recorded, for he was by far the most talented and indefatigable experimental philosopher of his age. His discoveries however were not understood, or their impor- tance not appreciated, for he was imprisoned ten years as a practiser of magic, &c. There is a remark in his treatise " on the secret works of art and nature," that is too valuable to be omitted: he says a person who is perfectly acquainted with the manner that nature observes in lier opera- tions, can not only rival but surpass her. " That he was acquainted with the rarefaction of air, and the structure of the air pump, is past contradic- tion." He was (says Dr. Friend) the miracle of the times he lived in, and the greatest genius perhaps for mechanical knowledge which ever appeared in the world since Archimedes. The camera obscura and telescope were known to him, and he has described the mode of making reading glasses. Most of the operations now used in chemistry are said to be described or mentioned by him. A description of his laborato- ry and of the experiments he made, with a sketch of the various appara- tus employed, would have been infinitely more valuable than all the volumes on scholastic divinity that were ever written. In 1543, a naval officer under Charles V. is said to have propelled a ship of two hundred tons, by steam, in the harbor of Barcelona. No account of his machinery is extant, except that he had a large copper boiler, and that paddle wheels were suspended over the sides of the vessel. Like all old inventors he refused to explain the mechanism. The following a'ccount was furnished for publication by the superintendent of the Spanish royal archives. " Blasco de Garay, a captain in the navy, proposed in 1543, to the Emperor and King, Charles the Fifth, a machine to propel large boats and ships, even in calm weather, without oars or sails. In spite of the impediments and the opposition which this project met with, the Emperor ordered a trial to be made of it in the port of Barcelona, which in fact took place on the 17th of the month of June, of the said year 1543. Garay would not explain the particulars of his 404 Spanish Steam Ship. [Book IV. discovery : it was evident however during the experiment that it consisted in a large copper of boiling water, and in moving wheels attached to either side of the ship. The experiment was tried on a ship of two hun- dred tons, called the Trinity, which came from Colibre to discharge a cargo of corn at Barcelona, of which Peter de Scarza was captain. By order of Charles V, Don Henry de Toledo the governor, Don Pedro de Cordova, the treasurer Ravago, and the vice chancellor, and intendant of Catalonia witnessed the experiment. In the reports made to the em- peror and to the prince, this ingenious invention was generally approved, particularly on account of the promptness and facility with which the ship was made to go about. The treasurer Ravago, an enemy to the project, said that the vessel could be propelled two leagues in three hours — that the machine was complicated and expensive — and that there would be an exposure to danger in case the boiler should burst. The other commissioners affirmed that the vessel tacked with the same rapidity as a galley manoeuvred in the ordinary way, and went at least a league an hour. As soon as the experiment was made Garay took the whole ma- chine with which he had furnished the vessel, leaving only the wooden part in the arsenal at Barcelona, and keeping all the rest for himself. In spite of Ravage's opposition, the invention was approved, and if the expedition in which Charles the Vth was then engaged had not prevented, he would no doubt have encouraged it. Nevertheless, the emperor pro- moted the inventor one grade, made him a present of two hundred thousand maravedis, and ordered the expense to be paid out of the trea- sury, and granted him besides many other favors." " This account is derived from the documents and original registers kept in the Royal Archives of Simuncas, among the commercial papers of Catalonia, and from those of the military and naval departments for the said year, 1543. , THOMAS GONZALEZ. " Simuncas, August 27, 1825." From this account it has been inferred that steam vessels were invented in Spain, being only revived in modern times ; and that Blasco de Garay should be regarded as the inventor of the first steam engine. As long as the authenticity of the document is admitted and no earlier experiment adduced, it is difficult to perceive how such a conclusion can be avoided ; at least so far as steam vessels are concerned. It may appear singular that this specimen of mechanical skill should have been matured in that coun- try ; but at the time referred to, Spain was probably the most promising scene for the display of such operations. Every one knows that half a century before, Columbus could find a patron no where else. The great loss which Charles sustained in his fleet before Algiers the previous year, must have convinced him of the value of an invention by which ships could be propelled without oars or sails ; and there is nothing improbable in supposing the loss on that occasion (fifteen ships of war and one hun- dred and forty transports, in which eight thousand men perished and Charles himself narrowly escaped) was one principal reason for Captain Garay to bring forward his project. M. Arago, who advocates with pe- culiar eloquence and zeal the claims of Decaus and Papin, as inventors of the steam-engine, thinks the document should be set aside for the fol- lowing reasons : 1st. Because it was not printed in 1543. 2d. It does not sufficiently prove that steam was the motive agent. 3d. If Captain Garay really did employ a steam engine, it was " according to all appear- ance" the reacting eolipile of Heron, and therefore nothing new. To us there does not appear much force in these reasons. M. Arago ob- Chap. 4.] Observations on Garay' s Steam Apparatus. 405 serves, " manuscript documents cannot have any value with the public, because, generally, it has no means whatever of verifying the date as- signed to them." To a limited extent this may be admitted. Respecting private MSS. it may be true ; but surely official and national records like those referred to by the Spanish secretary should be excepted. We have in the eighth chapter of our Third Book quoted largely from official MS. documents belonging to this city, (New- York :) now these are pre- served in a public office and may be examined to verify our extracts as well as their own authenticity : and the Spanish records we presume are equally accessible, and their authenticity may be equally established. The mere printing of both could add nothing to their credibility, although it would afford to the public greater facilities of judging of their claims to it. So far from rejecting such sources of information respecting the arts of former times, we should have supposed they were unexceptionable. But it is said — although a boiler is mentioned, that is not sufficient proof that steam was the impelling agent, since there are various machines in which fire is used under a boiler, without that fluid having any thing to do with the operations : Well, but the account states that which really appears conclusive on this point, viz. that this vessel contained " boiling water" and thatRavago the treasurer, opposed the scheme on the ground that there would be an exposure to danger " in case the boiler should burst." As this danger could not arise from the liquid contents merely, but from the accumulation of steam, (the irresistible force of which was, as has been observed, well known from the employment of eolipiles) it is obvious enough that this fluid performed an essential part in the opera- tion— in other words was the source of the motive power. Had it not been necessary, Garay would never have furnished in it such a plausible pretext for opposition to his project, it has been also said "if we were to admit that the machine of Garay was set in motion by steam, it would not necessarily follow that the invention [steam engine] was new, and that it bore any resemblance to those of our day." True, but it would at least follow that Garay should be considered the father of steam navi- gation, until some earlier and actual experiment is produced. Arago further thinks, that if Garay used steam at all, his engine was the whirling eolipile (No. 180) — " every thing" he observes would lead us to believe that he employed this. We regret to say there are strong objections to such an opinion. That an engine acting on the same principle of recoil as Heron's eolipile might have been made to propel a vessel of two hun- dred tons is admitted ; but from modern experiments with small engines of this description, we know ; 1st, that in order to produce the reported result, the elasticity of the steam employed must have been equivalent to a pressure of several atmospheres ; and 2d, that the enormous consump- tion of the fluid when used in one of these engines must have required either a number of boilers or one of extraordinary dimensions. Had Garay employed several boilers, the principal difficulty would be removed, as he might then have made them sufficiently strong to resist the pressure of the confined vapor ; he however used but one, and every person who has witnessed the operation of reacting engines will admit that a single boiler could hardly have been made to furnish the quantity of steam re- quired, at the requisite degree of tension. As the nature of this Spanish engine is not mentioned, every person is left to form his own opinion of it. We see no difficulty in admitting that he employed the elastic force of steam to push a piston to and fro — or that he formed a vacuum under one by condensing the vapor. Such ap- plications of steam were as likely to occur to a person deeply engaged in 406 Substitute for Paddle Wheels. [Book IV devising modes of employing it, in the sixteenth as well as in the seven- teenth century, notwithstanding the objection so often reiterated, that the arts were not sufficiently matured for the fabrication of a metallic cylinder and piston, and apparatus for transmitting the movements of a piston to revolving mechanism. The casting and boring of pieces of ordnance show that the construction of a steam cylinder was not beyond the arts of the sixteenth century, or even of the two preceding ones; while the water-works, consisting of forcing pumps worked by wheels, and also numerous other machines put in motion by cranks, (and the irre- gularity of their movements being also regulated by fly wheels) described in the works of Besson, Agricola, &c. show that engineers at that time well understood the means of converting rotary into rectilinear motions, and rectilinear into rotary ones. Had Garay used a steam apparatus on the principle of Savery's, Papin's, or Leopold's, to raise water upon an overshot wheel fixed on the same axle as the paddles, we should probably have heard of it, since such a wheel would have been a more prominent object than the paddles or the boiler itself. It need not excite surprise that Garay adopted paddle wheels as pro- pellers, since they were well known before his time, being of very an- cient date. Roman galleys were occasionally moved by them, and they have probably never been wholly laid aside in Europe since the fall of the empire. Stuart, in his Anecdotes of the Steam Engine, observes that the substitution of them for oars is mentioned in several old military trea- tises. In some ancient MSS. in the King of France's library it is said that boats, in which a Roman army under Claudius Candex were trans- ported into Sicily, were propelled by wheels moved by oxen. An an- cient bas-relief has also been found representing a galley with three wheels on each side ; the whole being moved by three pair of oxen. Robertus Valturius, in his De Re Militari, Verona, 1472, gives a figure of a galley with jive paddle wheels on each side. Another is portrayed with one on each side. To these we add another from the Nuremburg Chronicle, published in 1497 ; at folio XCVIII a vessel is figured with two wheels on the side that is represented. An old English writer mentions them in 1573 ; and in 1682, a horse tow-boat with paddle wheels was used at Chatham, England. Of various substitutes for revolving oars or paddle wheels, there is one which, among other things, we have long purposed to try. It consists in protruding into the water, in a horizontal direction from close receptacles formed in the stern and below the water line, a series of two or more solid, or tight hollow bodies, of such dimensions that the water displaced might afford a resistance sufficient to drive forward the boat. Some idea of this resistance may be obtained by attempting to sink an empty barrel or hogshead, or by pushing a bucket or washing tub into a liquid, bottom downwards. The moveable bodies or propellers might be square boxes of wood, closed tight and made to slide in and out at the stern like the drawers of a bureau ; their outer ends being flush with the stern when drawn in, and the joint (at the stern) made tight by some contrivance analogous to a stuffing box ; their velocity and length of stroke being proportioned to the size of the vessel and its required speed. The wa- ter itself would drive or help to drive back each propeller at the termi- nation of its stroke, just as a hollow vessel is pushed up when thrust un- der water. The receptacles might be open at the top so as to allow any water which leaked in at the joint to be readily discharged. We are not aware that such a plan has ever been proposed. Chap. 4.] Raising Water by tkv condensation of Steam. 401 There are several indications that mechanicians in different parts of Europe, were alive to the power developed by steam at the time Garay was making his experiments ; and we have little doubt that interesting information respecting it will yet be obtained from the obsolete tomes of the XV and XVI centuries. Those old authors, whose works are gener- ally quoted on the subject, obviously derived their information principally from those of their predecessors as well as from the laboratories of the alchymists. Jerome Cardan, an Italian, born in 1501 and died in 1575, one of the most eccentric geniuses that ever lived, in whom was united " the most transcendent attainments with the most consummate quackery, profound sagacity with the weakest superstition ; who on one page is seen draw- ing the horoscope of Christ, and in another imploring his forgiveness for the sin of having eaten a partridge on Friday ; unfolding the most beautiful relations in algebraic analysis, and foretelling from the ap- pearance of specks on his nails his approach to some discovery ; above all, eloquently enforcing the obligations of a pure religion and expressing the finest sentiments in morals, while his long life was one continued ex- ertion, grossly outraging both. Here, this philosopher, juggler and madman, is entitled to brief mention from displaying in his writings a knowledge of what has been called the capabilities of steam, and more particularly with the fact of a vacuum being speedily procured by its condensation." That the alchymists were familiar with the formation of a vacuum by the con- densation of steam, and with raising water into it by atmospheric pressure is certain. Their ordinary manipulations necessarily made them acquainted with both. In Fludd's Integrum Morborum Mystcrium, page 462, he illustrates his notions re- specting fever and dropsy, by what he calls a common experiment, and with the apparatus figured in the cut. An empty retort or one containing a little water was suspended over a fire with the neck turned No. 186. Fludd. down into a vessel of water : when the retort svas heated the air or vapor became expanded and part of it driven out through the liquid. Upon removing the fire, the water was forced by the atmosphere through the neck to supply the place of the air or vapor expelled by the heat. This although nothing more than the old process of filling eolipiles, most of which could be charged in no other way, shows that the principle was well * understood and adopted in various operations. We add another and earlier example from Porta's Natural Magic, a work first published in 1560, where he distinctly shows the formation of a vacuum by the condensation of steam, and raising of water into it by the atmosphere. " Make a vessel with a very long neck ; the longer it is, the greater wonder it will seem to be. Let it be of transpa- rent glass that you may see the water running up : fill this with boiling water, and when it is very hot, or setting the bottom of it to the fire that it may not presentlie wax cold ; the mouth being turned downwards that it may touch the water, it will suck it all in." Discharging the hot water is not mentioned, but that is of course implied, and before the vessel was placed on the fire — while full of hot water, it could not suck up any of the cold. (Book 19, cap. 3.) 408 Raising Water ly the Elasticity of Steam, from Porta. [Book I V That the same laborious experimenters were acquainted with the proper- ty of steam to displace liquids from close vessels is equally clear. Many of their operations made them familiar with the fact that in this respect its effects were similar to those of compressed air. Portions of their appa- ratus were admirably adapted to produce jets of water by means of steam — the mere opening of a cock to draw off the liquid contents of a heated alembic would often illustrate the operation, just as the overturn- ino- of an eolipile, or inclining one till the orifice was covered with water, would do. So far as relates to the principles of raising liquids into a vacuum formed by the condensation of steam, and forcibly ejecting them by its elasticity, nothing new was discovered by Decaus, Worcester, Savery, or Papin : both operations had long been performed with eolipiles, and were of com- mon occurrence in laboratories. It was in the extension of these opera- tions to hydraulic purposes that the merits of those last named consisted. ' Draining machines' were wholly out of the track of the transmuters of metals — the design of such contrivances was one which few if any of them would have stooped to pursue. Had they made the raising of water by steam a subject of particular study, hardly one of them could have failed to produce a machine similar to Savery's, for every element of it was in their possession and in constant use. 'Tis true we have as yet referred only to the expulsion of hot water from close vessels, but the application of steam to drive cold liquids from a separate vessel was not unknown. Of this there is an incidental but very conclusive proof in a book, of Porta's, entitled Spiritali, (named after Heron's work) originally published in Latin in 1601, and five years after in Italian and Spanish. In the translation of 1606, is the annexed figure No. 187, designed to show " into how many parts a simple portion of water may be transformed" i. e. by measuring the quantity expelled from a close vessel, by vapor evolved from a certain quan- tity heated in a retort. " Make a box of glass or tin, (c) the bottom of which should be pierced with a hole, through which shall pass the neck of a bot- No. 187. A. D. 1606. Porta. / \ j r» v -Ti- tle (a) used tor distilling, containing one or two ounces of water. The neck shall be soldered to the bottom of the box so that nothing can escape there. From the same bottom shall proceed a pipe, (i) the opening of which shall almost touch it, leaving just room enough between them for the water to run. This pipe shall pass through •an opening in the lid of the box, and extend itself on the outside to a small distance from its surface. Thte box must be filled with water by a funnel (e) which is afterwards to be well closed, so as not to allow the air [steam] to escape : — finally, the bottle must be placed upon the fire and heated a little ; then the water, changed into steam, will act violently upon the water in the box, and will make it pass through the pipe (i) and flow off on the outside," &c.a This apparatus although designed merely to illustrate the relative bulk of a volume of water and that of the steam into which it might be converted, yet exhibits in the clearest light the principle afterwards adopted for raising liquids by the elasticity of steam. a Arago's History of the Steam Engine, translated by Lieut. Harewood, U. S. N., Jomnafof the Franklin Institute, Vol. XXV. This device of Porta's was, we believe, first brought forward by Mr. Ainger, an English writer, whose work we have not seen. 52 Chap. 4.] Rupture of Vessels by Steam. 409 The diagram and description, observes Stuart, are so complete, that the application to such a purpose of a similar apparatus could not be consi- dered even as a variation of Porta's idea. In the first histories of the modern steam engine, its origin was traced to a device for raising water, proposed by the Marquis of Worcester, in his Century of Inventions, a tract written in 1655 and published in 1663. Subsequent researches have brought to light facts (some of which have just been noticed) which prove that steam was applied to that and other purposes long before ; and future inquiries will probably produce still earlier examples. Previous to describing other old applications of this fluid, we shall notice some experiments which historians of the steam en- gine have introduced. Thus Rivault, a French courtier, is said to have " discovered" in 1605 that a tight bomb shell containing water and thrown into a fire would be exploded by the confined vapor — and by Decaus in 1615, that a close copper ball partly filled with water and heated, would be rent asunder with a noise resembling that of a petard — and by the Marquis of Worcester in 1663, that a piece of ordnance would also be exploded, if treated in the same way with its mouth and touch-hole plug- ged up. Now, the fact which these experiments established (if they were all made) was one with which every person who ever used an eolipile was familiar ; and which was no more a new discovery in the beginning of the seventeenth century, than experiments to prove that the cover of a common cauldron might be blown off by the same agent, could have been in the middle of k. It was a knowledge of the same fact that led ancient philosophers to account for the phenomenon of earthquakes — which induced the ministers of the steam deities, mentioned in the last chapter, to regulate the resistance of the plugs which closed the mouth and eyes of the idols, so as to give way before the tension of the steam exceeded the strength of the metal, and blew both them and their gods to atoms. When the Spanish treasurer objected to the project of Garay that the boiler might " burst," he did not dream of having made a discovery of the danger arising from imprisoned steam : had such been the case his ob- jection would have had no force till the fact upon which it was based, had been tested and become generally known — but the ground of his opposition every person of that age could appreciate as well as we can ; and it is not improbable that on that ground only was the project abandoned. The same objection still prevents thousands from traveling either in steam boats or steam carriages. Examples to show that old chemists were as familiar with the same fact almost as with " the cracklings of thorns under a pot," might be quoted in abundance — they are not necessary, but we shall adduce one or two. In Porta's Natural Magic, (Book X, chap. 1, on Distillation^ he speaks of re- gulating the capacity of stills to the various substances treated in them. Such as were of " a flat and vapourous nature" require, he observes, large vessels, " for when the heat shall have raised up the flatulent matter, and it finds itself straighten'd .... it will seek some other vent, and so tear the vessels in pieces, which will fly about with a great bounce and crack, and not without endamaging the standers by." Again, in the ninth chapter of the same book, he directs that particular care should be taken to make the joints tight " lest the force of the vapours arising may burst it [the still] open and scald the faces of the by standers." That such occurrences were not uncommon may be inferred from another remark ; (in the 21st chapter of the 10th book,) speaking of" the separation of the elements" and of the various substances distilled, he observes, " we account those airy which fill the ves- sels and receivers and easily burst them, and so flie out." These examples 410 Raising Hot Water by Steam, from Decaus. [Book IV are sufficient to prove that the irresistible force of steam when confined, was known in the middle of the sixteenth century — in fact it always has been known since distillation was practised or an eolipile used. Particular care was always required to keep the orifice of the latter instrument open when on the fire. Besides the Natural Magic of Porta and the writings of Cardan, there were other works published in the sixteenth century in which steam is either incidentally mentioned, or expressly treated on. About the year 1560, Mathesius, a German preacher, in order to illustrate the enormous force of a little imprisoned vapor, introduced into a sermon a description of an apparatus " answering to a steam engine" — an instance of ingenuity equal to that of Cardan, who contrived to swell the contents of a treatise on arithmetic, (which he wrote for the booksellers by the page) by ex- patiating on the motions of the planets, on the creation, and the tower of Babel. Canini, a Venetian, made experiments on steam in 1566. In 1569, an anonymous tract, printed at Orleans, and ascribed to Besson, contains an account of the expansion of water into steam, and the relative volumes of each. About 1597, a' German writer proposed the whirling eolipile of Heron, as a substitute for dogs in turning the spit, and recom- mended it in a passage, an extract from which may be seen at page 76 of this volume. The " Forcible Movements" of Decaus, or de Caus, is the next au- thority for early notices of steam. This work was first published at Frankfort in 1615, and in Paris in 1624. Jt is entitled Lies Raisons des Forces Mouvantes, avec diverses machines tantutiles que plaisantes, &c: — Reasons of moving forces, with various machines both useful and inter- esting. The title seems to have been slightly changed in different editions; and, as noticed at page 319, the name of the author also; a circumstance that has led Mr. Farey to suppose there were two books, written by different au- thors of the same name. In the English translation of 1659, which consists of two parts : " The theorie of the conduct of wa- ter" and the " Forcible movements," the theorems on steam are omitted. By these theorems Decaus intended to show that heat carries off water by evaporation — that steam when condensed returns to its origin- al bulk — and that a hollow ball or eolipile may be exploded by it. The only device for employing this fluid which he has given, is in illustration of the fifth theorem, viz : Water may be raised above its level by means of fire. : " The third method of raising water is by the aid of fire, whereby diverse ma- chines may be made. I shall here give the description of one. Take a ball of copper marked A, well soldered at every part. It must have a vent hole marked D by which water may be introduced ; and also a tube marked C, soldered into the top of the ball, and the end C reaching nearly to the bottom, but not touching it. After filling this ball with water through the vent hole, stop it close and No. 188. Decaus, A. D. 1615. Chap. 4.] Vessels with Tubular Spouts. 411 put the ball on the fire, then the heat acting against the said ball, will cause all the water to rise through the tube C." On the supposition that this apparatus was originally designed by I)e- caus, M. Arago has claimed for France the invention of the steam engine. The English, he observes in his Memoir of Watt, have ascribed the honor to the Marquis of Worcester ; but on this side the channel, "we main- tain that it belongs to a humble engineer, almost forgotten by our bio- graphers, viz. Solomon de Caus." And in his 'History of the Steam Engine,' he asserts that " the idea of raising water by the elastic force of steam" belongs to the same individual. With the disposition and even an anxiety to give to every inventor his full meed of praise, we confess that we cannot perceive in the figure and description before us, sufficient ground from which such inferences could fairly be drawn. The fact is, to no one age or people can the origin of the steam engine be attributed — nor yet its various applications. That some have contri- buted greatly more than others to develope, mature and apply it, no person doubts. Were it even admitted that no apparatus precisely like that represented in the figure was previously known, it would be difficult to establish the claims put forward in behalf of Decaus. But there was nothing novel either in its construction or in the principle of its operation; while for nearly all practical purposes it was valueless. So far as respects the apparatus simply, no part of it was invented by him. It is figured in the Spiritalia as an illustration of Problem IX, viz. a hollow sphere partly filled with water, and resting upon a tripod, with a jet pipe extending down into the liquid. Instead of fire under it to raise steam, a syringe is connected to the upper part, by which to inject air or water. This figure is copied in Plate VII of the " Forcible Move- ments," (Leak's Trans,) and of it Decaus observes, " as concerning the figure of the globe, it may serve for pleasure to cast the water very high by the pipe, after that you have forced it in with violence with the sy- ringe." Had not this device of raising water by air compressed with a syringe been found in the Spiritalia, it might also have been deemed the invention of Decaus, for he does not mention the source whence he de- rived it; and as it is, we think he may with as much reason be considered the author of ^'/--engines, as the first inventor of steam engines. The apparatus is also a modification of that by which Heron raised water by the heat of the sun, but the author of the Spiritalia was too well versed in the subject, to introduce in that work such a device as that of Decaus. The elevation of water by the elastic force of steam was also well known before the time of Decaus. Nature herself has always presented striking proofs of it in boiling springs, and in the magnificent fountains and jets that are thrown up in various parts of the earth from subter- raneous cauldrons by imprisoned steam ; as in the Geysers of Iceland, where the hot liquid is thus violently forced through natural tubes, of nine or ten feet in diameter, to heights varying from twenty to ninety feet, and accompanied with intermitting volumes of the vapor ; pheno- mena the philosophy of which was well understood by the ancients. But if such examples are deemed too indirect, and as known only to a few, there are others with which people generally have always been conver- sant : Vessels for heating water, with tubular spouts, whose upper orifices stand higher than the top of the vessels or the liquid within them, are of extreme antiquity; some that resemble our tea-kettles and coffee-pots are found portrayed on the paintings and sculptures of Egypt. Now every 412 Observations on the device of Decaus. [Book IV one knows that when the covers of these fit so close as to prevent the steam from escaping as fast as it is generated, the confined vapor forces up the hot liquid through the spouts ; and in a manner precisely the same as described by Decaus, for the effect is the same whether the discharging tube be connected to the lower side of a boiler like a tea-kettle spout, or inserted through the top and continued within to the liquid. From such domestic 'exhibitions of the effects of steam, the devices of Heron and other ancient experimenters were probably derived : a person whose thoughts were turned to the subject of raising water by it could not fail to profit by them, or to hit upon so slight a modification of the apparatus as shown in the last figure. The same application of steam was often exhibited by alchymists as al- ready observed in their manipulations, and in drawing off the contents of their stills and retorts ; but it was still more clearly illustrated in common life in the employment of eolipiles, and the copper ball of Decaus was merely one of these with ajetpipe prolonged into the liquid. The very terms " ball of copper," " ball of brass," were those by which eolipiles were designated. (See page 396.) Now no one was ignorant that an opening on the top of one of these instruments Jet out steam, and that through one near the bottom hot water would be violently expelled through a vertical tube, if attached to the opening. Suppose the one figured at No. 185 either accidentally or designedly placed on the fire with the tube inclined upwards, and heated in that position while two thirds filled with water ; the vapor would then accumulate in the dome, and would necessarily drive out the boiling liquid until the lower orifice of the tube was no longer covered with water : or imagine No. 184 inclined till water rushed out instead of steam. That such experiments were not only frequent but com- mon, no person can reasonably doubt, although no notice of them may be found in books. Such a mode of raising water was of little value and not thought worth recording, and but for its introduction into some histories of the steam-engine, we should not have deemed it of sufficient importance to notice. Moreover, the ordinary mode of charging eolipiles which had but one minute orifice, viz. by heating and then plunging them in water, must have frequently caused them to produce liquid jets, in consequence of their imbibing too much, and there being no other way of expelling the surplus than by placing the instrument on the fire. Probably an eoli- pile was never used that was not occasionally overcharged with the liquid, and thus made to raise a portion of it by the elastic force of steam. At any rate, no one who was familiar with these instruments, from Heron to Decaus, could have been ignorant of the fact that they might be applied to produce jets of hot water as well as of vapor ; and few ever used them who did not occasionally make them produce both. It would be an unjust reflection on Decaus to suppose he could not have given a better plan than No. 188 for raising water by steam, if the project had been seriously entertained by him ; but there is not the slightest ground to believe he ever dreamt of applying that fluid to hydraulic purposes, or as a substitute for pumps, chains of pots, &c. He certainly would have laughed at any one proposing a device by which water could not be raised until the whole of it was boiled, whether the quantity was a pint, a hogs- head, or a million of gallons ; and in some cases not until its temperature far exceeded that at which ebullition in open vessels takes place. Why then, it may be asked, did he mention the device at all % Simply to show that " water may be raised above its level by means of fire." Well, but he says that "diverse machines" may be deduced from it. True, and he has given a description of one, from which we may judge of the rest : these Chap. 4.] Observations on the device of Decaus. 413 were most likely mere trifles — whims that suited the taste of the age, No. 189 is probably one of them, which a contemporaneous English author adduces under " Experiments of mocions by rarefying water with fier," and of which he also observes, other devices may be derived from it. Decaus appears to have read and traveled much, and to have collected knowledge from every source within his reach. He describes saw-mills that were used in Switzerland, fire-engines of Germany, canal-locks which he noticed between Venice and Padua : he cites Tacitus, Pausanias and Pliny; quotes largely from Heron, and refers his more learned readers to Archimedes, a commentary upon whose writings he promises to undertake. Of course he was acquainted with the works of Porta, for this Neapolitan philosopher and his writings were greatly celebrated throughout Eu- rope. Now had Decaus turned his thoughts at all to the elevation of water by steam, he would at once have perceived the advantages of a device like No. 137, by which the liquid could be raised in unlimited quantities without being heated at all, as well as under all possible circumstances : and having perceived this, would he not (if the project of thus raising water had ever entered his head) have given it, or a modification of it, instead of No. 188 1 It is clear that he wanted an illustration of a propo- sition merely, and the one he has given he considered as good as any other. As long as the Natural Magic and the Spiritali of Porta are admitted to have been published, the former about fifty and the latter at least ten years before the work of Decaus, there is little if any thing whereon to found a claim for the latter. If we were to concede, what certainly is not " established beyond dispute, that the first idea of raising a weight by means of the elastic power of steam belongs to the French author," the fact would still remain that the Neapolitan had long before shown how this could be DONE ; and M. Arago has himself observed, that " in the arts, as in the sciences, the last comer is supposed to be acquainted with the labors of those who preceded him — all denial in this respect is without value." The object of Porta in introducing the device referred to was not to show its application to raise water, and it is not fair to conclude that he was igno- rant of its adaptation for that purpose because he has not gone out of his way to point it out. It has also been objected, that his apparatus raised the liquid to a very limited height. We do not know that Decaus's did more, for we are only told that the contents of the ball would be driven out, without the slightest intimation of an elevated discharge. Well, (an advocate of the latter will say) but his apparatus is capable of raising wa- ter to all heights. And so is Porta's. But had Porta " the least idea of the great power which steam is susceptible of acquiring V The extracts which we have given from his Natural Magic, on the rupture of vessels by steam, prove that he was well aware of it ; and the book from which these extracts are taken was his earliest production, being published in 1560, at which time (he observes in the preface) he was only about fifteen years old. To conclude, we are constrained to embrace the opinion, not- withstanding the arguments and eloquence of M. Arago, that the device described by Decaus brought to light no new fact, and gave rise to no new or useful result. Although instances rarely occur in the arts in which the elevation of hot water by the steam evolved from it could be of service, there are some, as in chemical manipulations, in a few breweries and distilleries, and also in soap manufactories. The operation in the latter is worth noticing :— In the ordinary process of manufacturing common hard soap, three or four tons are often made at once in a deep iron vat or boiler. Into this several 414 Hot water raised "by Steam in soap manufactories. [Book IV. hundred gallons of ley, with 'the other ingredients, tallow, rosin, lime, &c. are put. After the whole has been several times boiled, the semi-fluid mass is suffered to remain some time at rest, when the ley collecting at the bottom leaves a thick stratum of soap formed above. As no openings are made in the sides or bottom of»the boiler, the hot ley is drawn off at the top, and is usually done by a common pump. Long after the fire is with- drawn steam continues to rise from the liquid below ; for, from the vast mass of heated materials, their non-conducting property, and that of the furnace, the heat is slowly dissipated. The soap in the mean time acquires a firmer consistence, and prevents the vapor from escaping above almost as effectually as the bottom of the boiler does below ; so that not until the steam attains considerable elastic force can it open a passage throught and when it does the opening is instantly closed as before. When there- fore the pump is pushed through the whole to the bottom of the vat, and started to work, the liquid continues of itself to pass up, being urged by the steam. (It is necessary to work the pump at first because the open- ings in its end become stopped with soap in passing it down. The end of a plain tube would be choked in the same way ; but by a pump at- tached to it, the pressure of the atmosphere is added to that of the steam to force the passage open.) The large body of soap keeps settling down as the ley is discharged, and thus preserves the steam at the same degree of tension until all the ley is ejected, when the steam itself escapes also through the pump. The soap, it will be perceived, acts as a flexible pis- ton, its adhesion to the sides of the boiler and its spissitude and weight effectually confining the vapor below. Of the origin of this mode of raising ley, and the extent to which it is practiced, we are not informed. It affords however an example of the truth of the remark, that important results may be deduced from attention to simple facts, as well as from the observance of common products. An examination of the residuum of a soap-boiler's kettle, it is well known, led to the discovery of a new chemical element, (iodine,) and of its virtues as a specific in the cure of the goitre ; and from the preceding remarks it'may be inferred, that an observing Greek or Roman soap-boiler might have discovered the applicability of steam to raise water, since he possessed all the requisite machinery in his ordinary apparatus, and might have per- formed the operation as often as he made soap. His ingenuity would also have been rewarded by a diminution of his labor. And who can prove that such a plan was not in use in some of the old soap-factories of former times ] In that, for example, which has been discovered in Pompeii, in one apartment of which are the vats, placed on a level with the ground, and in another were found heaps of lime of so superior a quality as to have excited the admiration of modern manufacturers." Of the manipulations of ancient mechanics and manufacturers we know little or nothing. Of the thousands of their devices, many valuable ones have certainly been lost. Some of these have been revived or rediscovered in modern times, among which we think may be mentioned various appli- cations of steam. There were indeed so many occasions for the employ- ment of this fluid by the ancients, and particularly in raising of water, that, taken in connection with the information respecting it in the Spiritalia, the part it was made to perform in the temples, the traces of it in the hot * Soap must have been an expensive article among the Greeks, at least such as was used in the toilette, if we were to judge from the amount that Demetrius extorted from the Athenians, viz. 250 talents, which, says Plutarch, "he gave to Lamia and his other mistresses to buy soap." Chap. 4.J Ancient Writings on the Arts destroyed. 415 baths at Rome, and the apparatus of Anthemius, by which last it was adapted to a very novel purpose as a motive agent, thus exhibiting re- sources in its appplication that could only be derived from experience — we cannot divest ourselves of the idea that the ancients were better ac- quainted with the mechanical properties of steam and its application to the arts than is commonly supposed. But for the destruction of the numerous libraries of the ancients, some of which contained volumes that treated on every subject, we should have been intimately acquainted with their arts and machinery ; and but for the logic of Omar,a we might have been in possession of those treatises on mechanics that Ctesibius studied, and which supplied Heron with ma- terials for the Spiritalia ; for the latter refers to inventions and writings of his predecessors, and admits having incorporated some of their produc- tions with his own. Possibly the very books out of which he selected the applications of steam No. 179 and No. 180 might now have been extant. The destruction of such works as these was a severe loss to the world. Had they been saved, the state of society would not, in the following ages, have been so greatly degenerated, nor would the arts have sunk to so low an ebb. Mechanics have therefore as much reason, if not more, to deplore the loss of those volumes that treated on the subjects of their pur- suits, as learned men have to regret the destruction of those that related to literature only. It was also easier to replace the latter than the former — to revive the literature than the arts of the ancients ; for reflections on history, politics, morals, literature, romance, &c. are more or less common to our race in all times, and in every age men will be found to clothe them, or selections of them, in glowing language ; whereas mechanical inventions, though often brought about by the observance of common facts, are frequently the results of fortuitous thoughts which local occur- rences or singular circumstances induce, and if once lost can hardly be revived, except by congenial minds under similar circumstances. Besides, it is not by the mere arresting an idea as it floats through the mind that discoveries or improvements in mechanism are effected : on the contrary, it requires to be cultivated and matured by reflection ; the accuracy of the device suggested by it has to be tested by models, and these by experi- ment, before the incipient thought becomes embodied in a working ma- chine. » Amrou, his general, having taken Alexandria, wrote for directions respecting the disposition of the famous library which it had been the pride of the Ptolemies to collect. The reply was— if the writings agreed with the doctrines of the Koran, they were use- less ; and if they did not, they ought to be destroyed. The argument was irresistible, and the whole were burnt 416 Few Inventions formerly recorded. [Book IV. CHAPTER V. Few Inventions formerly recorded — Lord Bacon — His project for draining mines — Thomas Bushell — Ice produced by hydraulic machines — Eolipiles — Branca's application of the blast of one to produce motion — Its inutility — Curious extract from Wilkins — Ramseye's patent for raising water by fire — Ma- nufacture of nitre — Figure illustrating the application of steam, from an old English work — Kirchor's device for raising water by steam — John Bate — Antiquity of boys' kites in England — Discovery of at- mospheric pressure — Engine of motion — Anecdotes of Oliver Evans and John Fitch — Elasticity and condensation of steam — Steam-engines modifications of guns — A moving piston the essential feature in both— Classification of modern steam engines — Guerricke's apparatus — The same adopted in steam-en- gines— Guerricke one of the authors of the steam-engine. How few, how exceedingly few of the conceptions and experimental researches of mechanics have ever been recorded ! How many millions of men of genius have passed through life without making their discove- ries known ! Even since printing was introduced, not a moiety of those who possessed in an unusual degree the faculty of invention have pre- served any of their ideas on paper. Of some men celebrated for the no- velty of their devices, nothing is known but their names ; they have gone, and not a trace of their labors is left. Of others, the title by which they designated their inventions is nearly all that has come down — no particu- lars by which we might judge of their merits. This is the case with many of the old experimenters on steam, especially those who raised or at- tempted to raise water by it. Among these we have sometimes thought Lord Bacon should have a place, under the impression that he employed, or designed to employ, that fluid to raise water from the deluged mines which he undertook to recover. He obviously had some new modes and machines for the purpose. An account of these he laid before the King, (James I) who approved of the project, and consented that the aid of parliament should be invoked. In the " Speech touching the recovery of drown'd mineral works," which Bacon prepared to be delivered before parliament, is the following passage : "And I may assure your Lordships that all my proposals, in order to this great architype, seemed so rational and feasable to my Royal Sovereign, our Christian Salomon, [!] that I thereby prevailed with his Majesty to call this honorable Parliament, to confirm and impower me, in my own way of mining, by an act of the same."a This great man was therefore in possession of a novel plan of accomplishing one of the most arduous undertakings in practical hydraulics; and so im- pressed with a belief in its efficiency that the king was induced by him to call, or agree to call, a parliament, chiefly it would seem to give sanction to it. What the plan was, we are not informed, nor is any account of it believed to be extant. Dr. Tenison, (Archbishop of Canterbury) the au- thor of " Baconiana," alluding in 1679 to Bacon's " Mechanical Inventions," observes, "His instruments and ways in recovering deserted mines, I can give no account of at all ; though certainly, without new tools, and peculiar inventions, he would never have undertaken that new and hazardous work."b That the project consisted chiefly in some peculiar mode of raising the water is certain ; and it is worthy of remark that a member of subjoined to Baconiana, p. 1 p. 166. b " An Account of all the Lord Bacon's Works,' Chap. 5.] Lord Bacon's Project far raising Water from Mines. 417 his household was a mining engineer, and celebrated for the invention or construction of hydraulic engines, viz. " Mr. Thomas Bushell, one of his lordship's menial servants ; a man skilful in discovering and opening of mines, and famous for his curious water-works in Oxfordshire, by which he imitated rain, hail, the rainbow, thunder and lightning."* This was probably the same individual who is mentioned in some biographies as " Master of the Royal Mines in Wales," under Charles I. That the application of steam to drain mines and impart motion to ma- chinery had begun to excite attention in England before the death of Ba con, (in 1626) is very obvious. Of this there are several indications ; and within four years of his demise, a patent was granted for a method of discharging water " from low pitts by fire" Then he was acquainted with the writings of Porta, and consequently with the apparatus No. 187. No experiment or fact of the kind illustrated by this could have escaped him, even if he had not been engaged in the project of recovering flooded mines ; and he was, to say the least, as likely as any other man of his age to perceive the adaptation of such an apparatus as No. 187 for raising wa- ter, and also to apply it. We hear of no such uses of steam in England before his time, but soon after his death they make their appearance with- out any one very distinctly to claim them. It may however be said, if Bacon raised water by steam, Bushell, his engineer, would most likely have done the same after the death of the chancellor, and proofs of this fact might be obtained from an examination of the water-works of the latter. Had we any account of these, the question most likely could be settled ; but almost the only information we have respecting the machines and labors of Bushell is contained in the extract above, and there is but one particular from which any thing respecting their construction can be inferred, viz. — hail is said to have been produced by them. How this was done we know not ; possibly by admitting high steam into a close vessel, from which water mixed with airb was expelled with a velocity sufficient to produce ice, somewhat in the same manner as the operation is performed by compressed air in the pressure engine described at page 362. The same thing was done by others who we know did experiment on steam, and who performed the operation without the aid of a great fall of water. The Marquis of Worcester makes it the subject of the 18th pro- position of his " Century of Inventions," in a fountain which he says a child could invert. And a century before, Cornelius Drebble " made certain machines which produced rain, hail and lightning, as naturally as if these eifects proceeded from the sky." But whether Lord Bacon used steam or not — and it must be admitted that there is no direct evidence that he did — it is interesting to know that his great mind was bent to the subject of raising water on the most ex- tensive scale, and this too at the time when steam first began to be propo- sed for that purpose in England. On this account, if on no other, are his labors entitled to notice here.6 a Account of Lord Bacon's Works, p. 19. b Dr. (afterwards Bishop) Burnett, in his Letters from Italy, noticing the water-works atFrescati, observes, "the mixture of wind with the water and the thunder and storms that thismaketh, is noble." 3d edition, Rotterdam, 1687, p. 245. c Lord Bacon seems to have been greatly interested in mining and in the reduction, compounding and working of metals. In his treatise on the Advancement of Learning he divides natural philosophy into the mine and furnace, and philosophers into pioneers and smiths, or diggers and hammerers; the former being engaged in the inquisition of causes, and the latter in the production of effects. In his " Physiological Remains," we find the saving of fuel thus noticed under the head of" Experiments for Profit :" "Build ing of chimneys, furnaces and oven*, to give out heat with less wood." 53 418 Branca1 s Eolipile. Book IV. Three years after Bacon's death, the first printed account was published of any modern attempt (yet discovered) to communicate motion to solids by steam, and as usual an eolipile was employed. Occupying a place on the domestic hearth, as this instrument did, the shrill current proceeding from it must have often excited attention, and led ingenious men to ex- tend the application of the blast to other purposes. The first idea that would occur to a novice when attempting to obtain a rotary movement from a current of vapor, would be that of a light wheel, having its wings or vanes placed so as to receive the impulse, in a similar manner as little paper wheels are made to revolve, which children support on a pin or wire and blow round with the mouth — or those which resemble ventila- tors and revolve when held against the wind at the end of a stick. These toys are vertical and horizontal windmills in miniature, and windmills and smoke-jacks were the only instruments in the 16th century that revolved by currents of air. Hence it was natural to imitate the movements of these in the first applications of steam ; and the more so since steam at that time was generally considered to be nothing but air.a Such was the device of Giovanni Branca, as described in a work entitled The Ma- chine, written in Italian and Latin, and published at Rome in 1629. The volume contains sixty-three engravings. The twenty-fifth represents an eolipile, in the form of a negro's head, and heated on a brazier : the blast proceeds from the mouth, and is directed against pallets or vanes on the periphery of a large wheel, which he thus expected to turn round ; and by means of a series of toothed wheels and pinions, to communicate mo- tion to stampers for pounding drugs. He proposed also to raise water by it with a chain of buckets, to saw timber, drive piles, &c. It is hardly necessary to observe that the apparatus figured by Branca in all probability never existed except in his imagination, and that his stampers, buckets, saws, piles, &c. could no more have been moved by the blast of his eolipile, than those venerable trees were which Wilkins and older writers have represented being torn up from the earth by a man's breath — the blast being directed against the vanes of a wheel, and the force multiplied by a series of toothed wheels and pinions, until its energy could no longer be resisted by the roots.b Branca seems to have had these childish dreams in his mind when he proposed a continuous stream of steam from an eolipile, in lieu of intermitting puffs of air from a person's mouth. Italian writers have however claimed for him the invention of the steam-engine, a claim quite as untenable as that put forth in behalf of Decaus ; for, in the first place, his mode of producing a rotary motion by a current of vapor was not new : all that can be accorded to him in this respect is, that he perhaps was the first to publish a figure and description of it. Then it indicates neither ingenuity nor research. There probably never was a boy that made and played with " paper windmills" who would not have at once suggested it, had he been consulted ; and when eolipiles were common, many a lad doubtless amused himself by making his " mills" revolve in the current of vapor that issued from them. Moreover, the device is of no practical value. How infinitely does it fall short when compared with that of Heron, (No. 180.) The philosophical principle of a A horizontal and a vertical windmill are figured at folio 49 of Rivius' translation of VitmviuB, A. D. 1548. b By the multiplication of wheels and pinions it were easy to have made, says Wilkins, "one of Sampson's hairs that was shaved off, to have been of more strength than all of them when they were on : by the help of these arts it is possible, as I shall demonstrate, for any man to If' ft up the greatest oak by the roots with a straw, to pull it up with c Jwztr, or to blow it up with his breath." Math. Magic, book i, chup. 14. Chap. 5.] Ramseye's Patent, A. D. 1630 419 recoil by which the Alexandrian engineer imparted motion by steam, has often been adopted, and engines resembling his are made even at this day; but one on the plan of Branca never was, and, without presumption it may be said, never will be. The principle being bad, no modification or extension of it could be made useful. No boiler could by it be made to work even a pump to inject the necessary supply of water. Mr. Farey has well observed that steam has so little density, that the the utmost effect it can produce by percussion is very trifling, notwith- standing the great velocity with which it moves. The blast issuing from an eolipile, or from the spout of a boiling tea-kettle, appears to rush out with so much force that at first sight it might be supposed its power, on a larger scale, might be applied in lieu of a natural current of wind to give motion to machinery ; but on examination it will be found, that the steam being less than half the specific gravity of common air, its motion .s im- peded and resisted by the atmosphere. As steam contains so lif' .e matter or weight, it cannot communicate any considerable force by its impetus or concussion when it strikes a solid body. The force of a current of steam also soon ceases. This may be observed in a tea-kettle : the vapor which issues with great velocity at the spout, becomes a mere mist at a few inches distance, and without any remaining motion or energy ; and if the issuing current were directed to strike upon any kind of vanes, with a view of obtaining motion from it, the condensation of the steam would be still more sudden, because the substance of such vanes would absorb the heat of the steam more rapidly than air. Branca's apparatus has been made to figure in the history of the steam- engine, but with equal propriety might the child's windmill be introduced into that of air-engines, for the analogy is precisely the same in both. His device had no influence in developing modern engines. Instead of lead- ing to the employment of the fluid in close vessels, and to the use of a piston and cylinder, its tendency was the reverse : hence so far from indi eating the right path, it diverted attention from it. At the time Branca was preparing his book for the press, some experi- ments on steam were being made in England — or so it would seem from Sanderson's edition of Rymer's Fccdera. In vol. xix is a copy of a patent or special privilege granted by Charles I to David Ramseye, one of the grooms of the privy chamber, for the following inventions ; and dated Ja- nuary 21, 1630 : " 1. To multiply and make saltpeter in any open field, in fower acres of ground, sufficient to serve all our dominions. 2. To raise water from low pitts by fire. 3. To make, any sort of mills to goe on standing waters, by continual motion, without the help of wind, waite [weight] or horse. 4. To make all sorts of tapistrie without any weaving loom, or waie ever yet in use in this kingdome. 5. To make boats, shipjjes and barges to goe against strong wind and tide. 6. To make the earth more fertile than usual. 7. To raise water from low places, and mynes, and coal pitts, by a new waie never yet in use. 8. To make hard iron soft, and likewise copper to be tuffe and soft, which is not in use within this kingdome. 9. To make yellow wax white verie speedilie." The privilege was for fourteen years, and the patentee was to pay a yearly rent of 3Z. 6s. 8d. to the king. Mr. Farey says that Ramseye had patents for other inventions from Charles I, but does not enumerate them. As it was not then customary to file spe- cifications, there is no record of the details of his plan. It is singular that English writers have passed over this patent almost without comment, and yet it contains the first direct proposal to raise water in that country by steam of which any account has yet been produced. 420 Ramseye's Patent. [Book IV It may perhaps be said, that steam is not mentioned ; still it is clearly im- plied in the second device, and was probably used in the third, fifth and seventh. The very expression " to raise water by fire," is the same that Porta, Decaus, and other old authors, used when referring to such ap- plications of steam. Worcester, Papin, Savery and Newcomen, all de- scribed their machines as inventions for "raising water by fire;" and hence they were named "fire water-works," " fire machines," and "fire engines." It should moreover be remembered that the word steam was not then in vogue. It is not once used by the translators of the Bible. The fluid was generally referred to as air, or wind, or smoke, according to the appear- ances it presented. "Rarefying water into ayer by fier," and similar ex- pressions, were common. The idea of air in motion, or wind, was also applied to currents of steam : thus we read of "heating water to make wind," and eolipiles were designated " vessels to produce wind." From the form of clouds which steam assumes when discharged into the atmosphere, it was also named smoke: thus Job calls it, in a passage already quoted; and Porta, in describing the apparatus No. 187, speaks of it both as smoke and air. " The water [in the bottle] must be kept heated in this way until no more of it remains ; and as long as the water shall smoke, (sfumera) the air will press the water in the box," &c. — and again, "from that you can conclude how much water has run out, and into how much air it has been changed." Had Ramseve therefore called his device a steam ma- chine, its nature would not have been so well understood as by the title he gave it, if indeed it could have been comprehended at all by the former term. The expression " raising water by fire" appears to have as dis- tinctly indicated, in the 17th century, a steam-machine, as the term steam- engine does now ; and there is no account extant of any device either pro- posed or used, in that century, for raising water from wells and mines by fire, except it was by means of steam. The date of this patent being so near that of the publication of Branca's book, it may perhaps be thought thatRamseye derived some crude notions from it of applying a blast of steam to drive mills and raise water, as sug- gested by the Italian ; but we should rather suppose some modification of, or device similar to, Porta's (see page 408) was intended in No. 2, and that Nos. 3, 5 and 7 were deduced from it. When once an efficient mode of raising water by steam (like No. 187) was realized, some application of it to propel machinery would readily occur. We know that both Savery and Papin and others proposed to work mills, by discharging the water they raised upon overshot wheels ; and this idea was so obvious and na- tural, that hundreds of persons have proposed it in later times without knowing that it had previously been done. From the order in which the first three devices are noticed in the privi- lege, it is possible that they were all modifications of the same thing; that the second and third were deduced from the first, and consequently in- yented independently of any previous steam machines. The operation of making saltpetre or nitre consists principally in boiling, in huge vats or cauldrons, the lixivium containing the nitrous earth ; and from the large quantities of water and fuel required, was formerly carried on in such places only as afforded these in abundance. At such works, the idea of employing the vast volumes of vapor (which escaped uselessly into the air) to raise the hot, and subsequently cold, liquids, would naturally occur to an observing mind, and especially when the subject of raising water by steam was exciting attention. Certainly the idea was as likely to occur to practical men while engaged in the manufacture of nitre in the beginning of the 17th century, as it was to Worcester and others in the middle of it Chap. 5.] Figure from an old EnglisJi Work. 421 and to Papin arid Savery at the close. Perhaps it will be said, nitre was not made in England at that time, and therefore Ramseye could not have taken the hint from such works ; and that the suggestion could only have been derived from a long practical experience in them, which he probably never had. This may be true, and it is not improbable that he was merely an agent in the business, having by his influence at court obtained the patent for his own as well as the inventor's benefit. The clause attached to the 8th device, "not in use within this kingdome" implies that they were not all of English origin. But whatever were the origin and details of those for raising water, it is clear that the subject of steam was then abroad in the world, and ingenious men in various parts of Europe were exercising their wits to employ it. It appears to us from the caption of Ramseye's patent, that No. 2 (raising water by fire) was not. the first thing of the kind proposed in England, since if it were he would have said so, as well as of No. 8, (softening iron and copper) — and this further appears from what he remarks of No. 7, " raising water from low places, mynes and coal pitts," probably an im- provement upon No. 2, and differing from all previous applications of steam for the purpose ; hence we are told that it was a " new waie," one "never yet in use." Had not steam therefore been previously applied to raise water, it is exceedingly probable that he would have attached a simi- lar remark to No. 2. The Treatise on Art and Nature, mentioned page 321, is the oldest English book we have met with that illustrates the raising of water by steam with a cut. The annexed figure is from page 30. It possibly may have been deduced from the one given by Decaus, (No. 185) but we should think not ; since, although the volume is a compilation, and two thirds of it taken up with "water-works," there is nothing except this from which to infer even the slightest acquaintance with Decaus's book. It seems to have been copied without alteration from some other author. It is named "A conceited* Lamp, having the image of a cock sitting on the top, out of whose mouth by the heat of the lamp either water or ayer may be sent" The device consists of an eolipile con- taining water and heated by a lamp of several wicks. The image of the bird is hollow, and communicates by a species of three-way cock with the steam, and also with a pipe that de- scends into the liquid ; so that when the bird is turned round till an opening in the moveable disk to which its lower part is attached coin- No. 189. A. D. 1633 4. cides with another which communicates with the steam in the upper part of the vessel, vapor issues from the mouth ; and when it is turned till the upper orifice of the pipe corresponds with the opening in the disk, then hot water is driven out ; and when the opening in the disk does not coincide with either, nothing can escape. After observing that an opening with a proper stop- per should be made in tho vessel, to charge it with water, the writer con- a No. 45 of Worcester's Century of Inventions, is named "A mo?t conceited Tinder- Box ;" No. 71 "A Square Key more conceited than any other;" and No. 74 "Aeon ecited Door." 422 Rawing Water ly Steam, from Kircher. [Book IV. tinues — " The larger you make this vessel, the more strange it will appear in its effects, so the lights [wicks] be proporcionable. Fill the vessell halfe full of water, and set the lights on fire underneath it, and after a short time, if you turn the holes that are on the sides of the pipes, that they may answer one another, the water being by little and little con- verted into ayer [steam] by the heat of the lights that are underneath, will breath forth at the mouth of the cock : but if you turn the mouth of the cock the other way, that the holes at the bottom of the pipes may answer each to other, then there being no vent for the ayer to breath out, it will presse the water and force it to ascend the pipe, and issue out where the ayer breathed out before. This is a thing may move great admiracion in the unskilfull, and such as understand it not. Other devices, and tho.se much more strange in their effects, may be contrived from hence"* Kircher, in 1641, described in his Ars MagneticaP the device for raising water figured in the margin, a model of which was found in his museum after his death. A close ressel containing the water to be elevated is connected by a pipe that pro- ceeds from its upper part to the top of the boiler, which is supported on a trevet. When the boiler was heated, steam ascended through the pipe, and accumulating in the upper vessel, forced the water up the jet-pipe as repre- sented. This, it will be seen, is Porta's machine (No. 187) adapted to the operation of raising liquids, which it ex- hibits in a very neat and satisfactory manner. It is not however equally clear that Kircher had any idea of adapt- ing the plan to the draining of mines, or other hydraulic purposes in the arts. Had such been the case, he would most likely have mentioned it in his Mundus Subterrancus, a work published some years afterwards, and in the se- cond volume of which he figures and describes the ordi- nary machines then in use, viz. the bucket and windlass, chain of pots, chain pump, and atmospheric pumps. The form of the model (an imitation of a vase supported on a column) rendered it an appropriate addition to his phi- losophical apparatus. In 1643, the great discovery of atmospheric pressure was made ; a discovery whose influence, like that of the atmosphere itself, is felt more or less in every art and every science. It led in a very short time to a series of inventions of the highest value, among which the reciprocating steam-engine should probably be placed. We mention it here in chronological order, that its influence in developing and improving the machine just named may be more readily appreciated when we come to notice subsequent attempts to impart motion by steam. No. 190. Kircher. 1641. a John Bate, who published a treatise on Fire-works in 1635, was perhaps the compiler of this curious volume. Strutt. in his Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, quotes Bate's book, but it would seem that the same cuts were not in both, for when speaking of boys' kites, Strutt observes that the earliest notice of them that he could find in books was in an English and French Dictionary of 1690; whereas there is a figure of a man flying one, with crackers and other fire-works attached to the tail, in the se- cond part of-' Art and Nature." b Tliis work was published in quarto, at Rome and Colonne, in 1641 ; and in folio, sit Rome, in 1654. Catalogue of Kircher's Works at the end of the first volume of Mundus Subterraneus. Amsterdam, 1665. Chap. 5.] Motive Engine in 1651. 423 Some remarkably ingenious experimentalists flourished about the middle of the 17th century, whose names have perished; and of their labors no- thing is known, except an enumeration of the uses to which some of their inventions could be applied. An example of this is furnished by an ano- nymous pamphlet,* published in 1651, from which the following extract is taken. The device referred to seems to have possessed every attribute of a modern high-pressure engine, and the various applications of the latter appear to have been anticipated. " Whereas, by the blessing of God, who only is the giver of every good and perfect gift, while I was search- ing after that which many, far before me in all humane learning, have sought but not yet found, viz. a perpetual motion, or a lessening the dis- tance between strength and time ; though I say, not that I have fully ob- tained the thing itself, yet I have advanced so near it, that already I can, with the strength or helpe of four men, do any work which is done in England, whether by winde, water or horses, as the grinding of wheate, rape, or raising of water ; not by any power or wisdome of mine own, but by God's assistance and (I humbly hope, after a sorte,) immediate di- rection, I have been guided in that search to treade in another pathe than ever any other man, that I can hear or reade of, did treade before me ; yet, with so good success, that / have already erected one little engine, or great model, at Lambeth, able to give sufficient demonstration to either artist or other person, that my invention is useful and beneficial, (let others say upon proof how much more,) as any other way of working hitherto known or used." And he proceeds to give " a list of the uses or applica- tions for which these engines are fit, for it is very difficult, if not impossi- ble, to name them all at the same time. To grind malt, or hard corne ; to grind seed for the making of oyle ; to grind colours for potters, painters, or glasse-houses ; to grind barke for tanners ; to grind woods for dyers ; to grind spices, or snufFe, tobacco ; to grind brick, tile, earth, or stones for plaster ; to grind sugar-canes ; to draw up coales, stones, ure, or the like, or materials for great and high buildings; to drawwyre ; to draw water from mines, meers, or fens ; to draw water to serve cities, townes, castles; and to draw water to flood dry grounds, or to water grounds ; to draw or hale ships, boatcs, fyc. up rivers against the stream ; to draw carts, wagons, fyc.as fast without cattel : to draw the plough without cattel to the same despatch if need be; to brake hempe, flax, &c.; to weigh anchors with less trouble and sooner ; to spin cordage or cables; to bolt meale faster and fine ; to saw stone and timber ; to polish any stones or mettals ; to turne any great works in wood, stone, mettals, fyc. that could hardly be done be- fore ; tojilc much cheaper in all great works; to bore wood, stone, mettals; to thrashe corne, if need be; to winnow corne at all times, better, cheaper, &c. For paper mills, thread, mills, iron mills, plate mills ; cum multis aliis." If this extraordinary engine of motion, observes Mr. Stuart, to whom we are indebted for the extract, was not some kind of a steam- engine, the knowledge of an equally plastic and powerful motive agent has been utterly lost. Steam is not here indicated, but it is difficult to conceive any other agent, unless some explosive compound be supposed, by which the pres- sure of the atmosphere was excited. That the engine consisted of a working cylinder and piston, and the latter moved by steam, must we a Invention of Engines of Motion lately brought to perfection ; " whereby maybe despatch- ed any work now done in England, or elsewhere, (especially works that require strength and swiftness,) either by water, wind, cattel, or men, and that with better accemmoda- lion and more profit than by any thing hitherto known and used." London, 1651. 424 Oliver Evans and, John Fitch. [Book IV. think be admitted ; for although most of the operations mentioned might have been performed by forcing up water on an overshot wheel, by an apparatus similar to Papin's or Savery's steam-engines, there are others to which such a mode was quite inapplicable, as raising of anchors, or propelling carts, wagons and ploughs. The inventor, whoever he was, has given proofs of an extraordinary sagacity, for every operation named by him is now effected by the steam-engine, except raising the anchors of steam-vessels and ploughing. The latter is' at present the subject of ex- periment, and the former will in all probability be soon adopted. The author's labors were most likely not appreciated by his contemporaries, and as the world is always too apt to think the worst in such cases, the whole will probably now be set down by some persons as the dream of a sanguine projector — the judgment commonly passed upon those who are in advance of the age they live in. Of this lamentable truth several ex- amples will be found in this volume, and in the history of every important invention. We shall notice two here, as they relate to two of the most valuable applications of steam. Oliver Erans, in 1786, urged upon a committee of the legislature of Pennsylvania, the advantages to be derived from steam-boats and "steam- wagons," and predicted their universal adoption in a short time. The opinion which the committee formed of him was expressed a few years afterwards, by one of its members, in the following words : " To tell you the truth, Mr. Evans, we thought you were deranged when you spoke of making steam-wagons." The other relates to John Fitch, a clock and watch maker, than whom a more inge- nious, persevering and unfortunate man never lived. In spite of difficulties that few could withstand, he succeeded in raising the means to construct a steam-boat, which he ran several times from Philadelphia to Burlington and Trenton in 1788. As a first attempt, and from the want of proper manufactories of machinery at the time, it was of necessity imperfect : then public opinion was unfavorable, and the shareholders finally aban- doned the scheme. His feelings may be imagined, but not described ; for he saw and predicted the glory that awaited the man who should suc- ceed in introducing such vessels in more favorable times. " The day will corne [he observes] when some more powerful man will get fame and riches by my invention, but nobody will believe that poor John Fitch can do any thing worthy of attention." He declared that within a century the western rivers would swarm with steam-vessels, and he expressed a wish to be buried on the margin of the Ohio, that the music of marine en- gines in passing by his grave might echo over the sods that covered him. In a letter to Mr. Rittenhouse, in 1792, he shows the applicability of steam to propel ships of war, and asserts that the same agent would be adopted to navigate the Atlantic, both for packets and armed vessels. Descanting on one occasion upon his favorite topic, a person present observed as Fitch retired, " poor fellow! what a pity he is crazy !" He ended his life in a fit of insanity by plunging into the Allegany.a In tracing the progress of discovery which resulted in the steam-engine, we have seen that the two grand properties of aqueous vapor — its elastic energy, and the instant annihilation of this energy by condensation — were well known in the 16th century. On these properties of steam were based all the efforts of experimenters to accomplish the two great objects they had in view; i. e. to impart motion by it to general mechanism, and to employ it as a substitute for pumps to raise water. Before either the • Supplement to Art. " Steam-Boat," Ed. Encyclopedia, by Dr. Mease ; and Watson's " Early Settlement and Progress of Philadelphia," &c. Phil. 1833. Chap. 5.] Classification of Modern Steam Engines. 425 elastic force or the condensation of steam could be beneficially applied to give motion directly to solids, some plan very different from that of Branca was required — one by which the fluid could be used in close vessels. Now there is in the whole range of mechanical combinations but one de- vice of the kind yet known, and it has but few modifications, viz. a piston and cylinder. Experience has proved, that of all contrivances for trans- mitting the force of highly elastic fluids to solid bodies, this is the best. Thus guns are cylinders, and bullets are pistons, fitted to fill the bore and at the same time to move through the straight barrels. It is the same, whatever the impelling agent may be ; whether gun-powder, steam, or compressed air. The air-guns of Ctesibius are the oldest machines of the kind on record, and from them we see that the ancients had detected this mode of employing aeriform fluids. Steam-engines simply considered are but modifications of guns. In the latter, the bullet or piston is driven entirely out of the cylinder, and in one direction only, because the intention is to impart the momentum to a distant object at a blow : but by the former the design is to derive from the moving bullet a continuous force ; hence it is not allowed to leave the cylinder, but is made to traverse incessantly backwards and forwards within. In order to transmit its impetus to the outside of the cylinder and to the objects to be acted upon, a straight rod is attached to it, and made to slide through an opening in one end of the cylinder. It is by means of this rod that motion is imparted to the machinery intended to be moved. All the mechanism, the wheels, cranks, shafts, drums, &c. of steam-engines are but appendages to the cylinder and piston ; they may be removed and the energy of the machine still remains; but take away either cylinder or piston and the whole becomes inert as the limbs of an animal whose heart has ceased to beat. Therefore it is the working cylinder and piston alone that give efficiency to modern steam-engines ; and it is to those persons who contributed to introduce them, that the glory attending the invention of these great prime movers is chiefly due. Whatever may be said respecting more ancient applications of steam as a moving power, modern engines are one of the results of the discovery of atmospheric pressure. All the early ones of which descriptions are extant were rather air than steam machines, not being moved by the latter fluid at all. Their inventors had no idea of employing the elastic force of steam, but confined themselves to the atmosphere as a source of motive force : hence they merely applied steam in lieu of a syringe to displace air from a cylinder, that, when the vapor became condensed by cold into a liquid, the atmosphere might force down the piston. That this was the way in which modern engines took their rise appears, further, from the same feature being retained in a great portion of them to this day. They are now ranged in three classes — 1st atmospheric, 2d low 'pressure, and 3d high pressure engines; and this we know is the order in which they were developed. In the first, the power is derived exclusively from the atmos- phere, the vapor employed being used only as a substitute for an air-pump in making a vacuum under the piston. In process of time the second was devised, in which the elastic force of steam is made to act against one side of the piston, while a vacuum is formed on the opposite side. The next step was to move the piston by the steam alone, and such are named high- pressure engines. The term steam-engine is therefore not so definite as some persons might suppose, since it is not confined to those in which steam is the prime mover. Had it not been for Torricelli's discovery, it is possible that we should never have known any other species of steam- engine than those of the third class ; and hence we repeat, that whatever 54 426 Guerricke's Illustration of Atmospheric Pressure. [Book IV No. 191. Guerricke. A. D. 1654. may be thought of engines made previous to the 17th century, those of modern days were obviously derived from atmospheric ones of the first class, while these in their turn were very likely deduced from the appa- ratus described in the next paragraph. Otto Guerricke, of whom we spoke at page 190, one of the earliest, and as far as mechanical ingenuity went perhaps the most gifted, of the early elucidators of atmospheric pressure, exhibited in his public experiments at Ratisbon, in 1654, the following application of that pressure as a mo tive force. A large cylinder, A, was firmly secured to a post or frame, It was open at the top and closed at the bottom, and had a piston accu- rately fitted to work in it. A rope was fastened to the piston-rod and passed over two pulleys, B C, as rep- resented, by which was suspended a scale, D, containing several weights. When the air was withdrawn from the lower part of the cylinder, the pressure of the atmosphere depress- ed the piston and raised the scale and weights. To vary the experiment, the weights were removed and twenty men were employed to pull at the rope with all their strength ; but as soon as a vacuum was made by the small air-pump attached to the bottom of the cylinder, the piston descended, notwithstanding all their efforts to prevent it. This is the oldest apparatus on record for transmitting motion to solids by a piston. We can however hardly believe that it was the first devised for the purpose. It would be strange if it were ; for whatever may have been the nature of Anthemius's, Garay's, and other old machines in which steam was the active principle, pumps and syringes had been too common, and experiments with them too frequent, for such a device to have been unknown. Such men as Aristotle and Archimedes, Ctesibius, Heron, Roger Bacon and their successors, were all aware that a syringe presented the same phenomenon as Guerricke's apparatus, when the pis- ton was drawn up while the discharging orifice was closed : the same thing was also observed with common pumps when the suction-pipes were either closed or choked. Experiments therefore to illustrate the force thus excited were in all probability made, and with apparatus similar to that of the Prussian philosopher, long before his time, although no account of them is extant. But if even such had been made, they would not lessen in any degree the merit of Guerricke, since his experiment undoubtedly originated with himself, and all knowledge of similar ones had been lost In this device we behold the same moving force, and the same mecha- nism for applying it, as were subsequently adopted in steam-engines, which at first were little more than copies of this : for example, had a loaded pump-rod been suspended to the rope instead of the scale and weights, the apparatus would have differed from Newcomen's engine only in the mode of exciting the atmospheric pressure. To Guerricke, therefore, is due the credit of having not only pointed out the power which alone gave efficiency to the first steam-machines, but also of devising the most effec- Chap. 6.] Old Inventors concealed their Discoveries. 427 tual means of employing it. No one could, we think, claim an equal de- gree of merit for simply applying (not inventing) another mode of produ- cing a vacuum under the piston ; but without insisting on this, it may be observed that even at present, in all low-pressure engines, the vacuum is made just as Guerricke made it, viz. by an air-pump; so that the impress of his genius on the steam-engine is no more obliterated in this respect than it is in others. Every unbiassed mind will therefore admit, that an honorable place in its history should be assigned to the philosopher of Magdeburg. CHAP TE R VI. Reasons of old Inventors for concealing their discoveries — Century of Inventions — Marquis of Wor- cester— His Inventions matured before the Civil Wars — Several revived since his death — Problems in the "Century" in older authors — Bird roasting itself— Imprisoning Chair — Portable Fortifications — Flying — Diving— Drebble's Submarine Ship — The 68th Problem — This remarkably explicit — The device consisted of one boiler and two receivers— The receivers charged by atmospheric pressure— Three and four-way cocks — An hydraulic machine of Worcester mentioned by Cosmo de Medicis — Worcester's machine superior to preceding ones, and similar to Savery's — Piston Steam-Engine also made by him — Copy of the last three Problems in the Century — Ingenious mode of stating them — Forcing-Pumps work- ed by Steam-Engines intended — Ancient Riddle — Steam-Boat invented by Worcester — Projectors des- pised in his time— Patentees caricatured in a public procession— Neglect of Worcester— His death— Persecution of his widow— Worcester one of the greatest Mechanicians of any age or nation— Glauber. As yet we have not met with any definite description of a steam-engine in actual use. This can only be accounted for from the fact that old in- ventors were all jealous of the printing-press. They believed their inte- rest required concealment on their part, that pirates might not rob them of their labors. They have been blamed for this, and so have some mo- dern mechanics, but we think without reason ; for, to obtain satisfaction at law in such cases, was formerly as difficult as it is now in most cases. To have to purchase justice, as in a lottery, with money, is bad in itself, and worse because those without money cannot obtain it ; but to have to give more for it than it is worth, if perchance it be awarded, is a disgrace to enlightened nations — an evil that savages would not for a moment en- dure. It is thus that law, though ordained to promote justice, is so pros- tituted as not only to defeat the object for which it was designed, but to cherish the grossest injustice. It has always been a bar to the progress of the arts. The difficulty and expense of obtaining and preserving an ex- clusive right to their inventions — that is, to their own property — have in- duced inventors more or less, in every age, to conceal their discoveries till death, and even then to destroy all records respecting them. When old inventors were solicitous of public patronage, instead of es- tablishing their claims to it by explaining the principles and operations of their machines, they contented themselves with enumerating their uses and good qualities merely. They proclaimed the great things that could be done, but studiously concealed the modes and means of doing them : hence new inventions were sometimes announced enigmatically, the mov- ing or constituent principles being so obscurely hinted at that few readers 428 Marquis of Worcester. [Book IV. could apprehend them. Of this mode of exciting public attention, the account of the engine of motion in the last chapter is an example ; and several more may be seen in the pamphlet published by the Marquis of Worcester, in 1663, entitled " A Century of the Names and Scantlings [outlines or hints] of such Inventions as at present I can call to mind to have tiied and perfected; which, my former notes being lost, I have, at the instance of a powerful friend, endeavored, now in the year 1655, to to set down in such a way as may sufficiently instruct me to put any of them in practice." This book is made up of one hundred inventions, numbered from one upwards. It contains a distinct reference to a work- ing steam-machine for raising water, and also hints by which its nature and construction are pretty clearly ascertained. There is some reason to believe that the modern high-pressure engine is also referred to. From the circumstance of the author having figured largely in the civil wars, he having been an enthusiastic adherent of Charles I. and of monarchy, his character and that of his book have been represented in the best and worst of lights. By his enemies he was held up as false and unprincipled in the highest degree ; by his friends, as chivalrous and of unspotted honor. The " Century" has been denounced as a scheme to impose on the cre- dulity of mankind — the dream of a visionary — and Hume, in his History, goes so far as to name it " a ridiculous compound of lies, chimeras, and impossibilities." On the other hand, it has been received by many (and generally by practical men) in the light in which the author represents it, viz. as a memorial of inventions actually put in practice by him — such as he had really " tried and perfected." With the political conduct of Worcester we have nothing to do. He naturally enough supported that system by which he and the rest of the Lords acquired and entailed their exclusive privileges ; among which the abominable one of being legislators by birth was perhaps the most odious and unnatural. On the fall of the king he retired to the continent, but, at the request of Charles II, ventured to visit London in disguise in 1656. Being discovered, he was arrested, and confined in the Tower until the reestablishment of monarchy in 1660. He died in 1667. We have no positive information respecting the time when he com- menced his mechanical researches. There is however reason to believe that most, if not all, the inventions enumerated in the "Century" were matured before the civil wars broke out, and consequently that the account of them was drawn up, as he declares, in 1655.a No. 56 he observes was tried before Charles I, Sir William Balfour, and the Dukes of Richmond and Hamilton ; and this could not have been later than 1641, for Balfour was dismissed that year. In addressing the Century to Parliament, he mentions having had " the unparalleled workman, Caspar Kaltoff," in his employment " these five and thirty years," and who was at that time (1663) engaged in his service. This carries back his experiments to 1628. Some of his " water- works " were in operation in his father's castle (at Ragland, in Wales) at the commencement of the Long Parliament, (1640) for by their sudden movements he is said to have frightened certain adhe- rents of the Parliament, who went to search the castle for arms. The na- ture of these works is not indicated, except that they consisted of "several engines and wheels," and that large quantities of water were contained in reservoirs on the top of a high tower. Whether steam was the agent em- ployed to raise this water is unknown. It could not have been if the tra- dition, credited by some writers, was true, viz. that his attention was first a The Century is copied in vol. xiii of Tilloch's Phil. Mag. ; and the editor remarks, " this little tract was first published in 1655." Chap. 6.] Century of Inventions. 429 drawn to the employment of steam by observing, wliile a prisoner in tht Tower, a pot-lid raised or thrown off by it. If this was the case, then no dependence can be placed on Worcester's assertion, that the whole Cen- tury was written in 1655 ; but there is no reason to question his veracity in this respect. On the contrary, the tradition is obviously a fable ; one that has been applied to others as well as to him. Although many of the devices in the Century appear at first sight ex- tremely alDsurd, and others impossible, yet every year is producing a solu- tion of one or more of them. One half, at least, of the number have been realized; among which are telegraphs, floating baths, short-hand, combi- nation locks, keys, escutcheons and seals, rasping mills, candle-moulds, engines for deepening harbors and docks, contrivances for releasing unruly horses from carriages, torpedoes, diving apparatus, floating gardens, bucket engines, (see page 64 of this volume) universal lever, repeating guns and pistols, double water screws (p. 140 of this vol.) abacus, portable bridges, floating batteries &c. besides his applications of steam, which will be no- ticed more at large farther on. It must not be supposed that Worcester was the first projector of every problem in the Century, although his solutions may have been peculiar to himself. The greater part may be found in the works of Porta, Fludd, Wilkins, and others of his predecessors and contemporaries ; so that the charges of absurdity brought against many of them are not attributable to him alone. Indeed, the Century is in a great measure free from those puerile conceits that abound in old authors.* No. 3 he names " a one-line cypher," that is, a character composed of a single line, which by its posi- tion was made to represent each and every letter of the alphabet. (Now used in short-hand.) No. 4 is an improvement, and consists in substituting points or dots in place of lines. No. 5, " a way by circular motion, either along a rule or ringwise, to vary any alphabet, even this of points," &c. Now these three systems were explained and illustrated by diagrams in detail, twenty-two years before the publication of Worcester's book, by Bishop Wilkins, in his " Mercury, or secret and swift Messenger," a tract printed in 1641. The eleventh chapter treats " of writing by invented characters " — " how to express any sense either by lines, points or figures" The last was by arranging the points or dots in the forms of circles, squares, triangles, &c. Wilkins speaks of the whole as an old device. Another problem in the Century is " a universal character." This had been often attempted, and Wilkins wrote also upon it. Another, " a water- ball," to show the hour of the day. There were some singular specimens of these clocks in Serviere's museum, which was celebrated for its col- lection of mechanical devices, and which doubtless Worcester had often visited. (See page 285, and note foot of page 63.) The universal lever, No. 26 of the Century, he admits having seen at Venice, and the bucket engine (No. 21) at Rome. It is probable he derived his " imprisoning chair" from the same place ; for there was in his time, as well as since, a a There is a singular one in book xiv of Porta's Magic, " Of a bird which roasts it- self;" which, had Worcester mentioned, few would have credited without the explana- tion. " Take a wren and spit it on a hazel stick, and lay it down before the fire, the two ends of the hazel spit being supported by something that is firm ; and you'll see with admiration the spit and the bird turn by little and little, without discontinuing, till 'tis quite roasted." This, says Ozanum, was first found out by Cardinal Paloti, at Rome. The motion may be accounted for on a similar principle as the rotation of glass tubes when supported at each end before a fire, and even when inclined against the fire-place with one end on the hearth, viz. : the heat, being applied to one side only, causes the tubes to bend, and consequently to preponderate and thus turn round. See Phil. Trans, vol. xxx — Abridg. vol. x 551. 430 Century of Inventions. [Book IV. famous machine of the kind exhibited in the Borghese villa, which could not have escaped his notice. It is described by Blainville as " very art- fully contrived; and strangers, who are not acquainted with the trick, are infallibly caught as in a trap when they are prevailed upon to sit in it." Travels, vol. ii, p. 35. We shall notice a few more: "A little engine portable in one's pocket, which placed to any door, without any noise but one crack, openeth any door or gate." A similar device is quoted by Wilkins from Ramelli, thus : " A little pocket engine wherewith a man may break or wrench open any door." (Math. Magic, book i, chap. 13, first published in 1648.) Again — " An instrument whereby an ignorant person may take any thing in perspective as justly and more than the skil- fullest painter can do by the eye." Probably the camera obscura, which Baptist Porta had described, about a century before, in his Natural Magic. See page 364 of the English translation of 1658, and also Fludd's Natural Simia scu Technica, 1618, page 308, for another mode. No. 29 of the Century relates to "Amoveable fortification — as complete as a regular one, with half-moons and counterscarps." Such a one is figured in Fludd's Simia. It is of a triangular form, with breast works and cannon ranged along two sides. The whole is made of thick timber clamped together, and moved by horses, which are yoked to a long pole or mast, also sup- ported on wheels and attached to the rear or base of the triangle, so as to be out of the reach of shot from the enemy. The horses have their faces to the fortification, just as if yoked to the pole of a common carriage and fronting it — or, according to the old saying, " the cart is put before the horse." His modes "of discoursing by knotted strings, gloves, sieves, lanterns, &c. are similar to others mentioned in the Natural Magic of Porta, and in other works. Wilkins's Secret and Swift Messenger also contains much curious information on such subjects. Several numbers of the Century relate to repeating guns. These, as is well known, exercised the wits of inventors long before his time. Porta, in his Magic, book xii, speaks of " great and hand guns, discharged ten times " although loaded but once. They are even of much older date. Sometimes several barrels were joined together. The " arithmetical instrument, whereby persons ignorant of arithmetic may perfectly observe numerations and subtractions of all sums and fractions," was in all probability the abacus, or Chinese ,nvan-pan, now used in schools. Flying and diving, also mentioned by him, have occupied the ingenuity of inventors in every age. Cornelius Drebble constructed a diving-vessel which was propelled by oars worked through openings in the sides. Short conical tubes of leather, through which the oars were passed, were con- nected to the openings so as to exclude the water; hence the joints some- what resembled those of the feet of a tortoise when protruded from the shell. The vessel was lowered by admitting water, and raised by pump- ing it out. (The distance of diving-vessels below the surface is easily and accurately ascertained by a curved tube containing a little mercury, one end being within the vessel and the other -without.) Charles, Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, hearing of Drebble's diving-ship, requested Papin to contrive one. Papin's machine is figured and described in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1747, page 581. Drebble's vessel did not require a constant supply of fresh air, for he had, or pretended to have, an elixir in a small vial, a few drops of which restored the vitiated air so as to make it again fit for respiration. Something of this kind was known even before Dreb- ble's time, if we may judge from one of several illustrations of diving in the old German translation of Vegetius, A. D. 1511. A man clothed in. Chap. 6.] Worcester's 68tk Proposition. 431 a dress of thin skin or oiled silk fitted close to his body, and covering every part except his head and hands, is represented walking on the bottom of a river. Jn his left hand he holds a leathern flask, through the contracted neck of which he is drawing a portion of the contents with his mouth. Wilkins devoted a chapter of his Math. Magic to diving. He notices Drebble's machine, and many other curious devices ; so that on this sub- ject Worcester had an abundance of materials and hints to work upon. No. 50 of the Century relates to portable ladders. A variety of these are figured in the old translation of Vegetius just referred to. There are several other things named in the Century which might be traced to older sources, but it is not necessary ; for Worcester has not, that we are aware of, ever claimed all the devices he has named. He mentions two whose authors he recollected, but as the account was drawn up from memory, he could hardly recall to mind the sources whence all were derived. He says they were such as he could call to mind to have tried and perfected : he does not say invented. While many originated with himself, others were such as he improved only. That he had sources of information which have not been discovered, there can be little doubt. Of the thou- sands of old treatises on the " Mysteries of Nature and Art," a staple sub- ject, and title too, from Roger Bacon to Moxon, how few are extant ! But some will perhaps yet be met with on the shelves of antiquaries and the lovers of old books in Europe. Those numbers of the Century which relate to steam are 68, 98, 99 and 100 ; but it is in 68 only that steam is clearly indicated. The device is named " a fire water work," and is described in the following manner : "An admirable and most forcible way to drive up water by fire, not by drawing or sucking it upwards, for that must be, as the philosopher calleth it, Infra spharam activitatis, which is but at such a distance. But this way hath no bounder, if the vessels be strong enough; for I have taken a piece of a whole cannon, whereof the end was burst, and filled it three quarters full of water, stopping and screwing up the broken end, as also the touch- hole ; and making a constant fire under it, within twenty-four hours it burst, and made a great crack : — So that having a way to make my vessels, so that they are strengthened by the force within them, and the one to fill after the other, I have seen the water run like a constant fountain stream forty feet high. One vessel of water rarefied by fire driveth up forty of cold water ; and a man that tends the work is but to turn two cocks, that, one vessel of water being consumed, another begins to force and refill with cold water, and so successively, the fire being tended and kept constant, which the self same person may likewise abun- dantly perform in the interim, between the necessity of turning the said cocks." We here see clearly what was meant by Ramseye and others when they spoke of raising water bi/Jire, viz. that it was by steam, which the fire was employed to produce. It will be perceived that Worcester does not here claim to be the first to raise water in large quantities in this man- ner, thus tacitly admitting that he was aware of previous applications of steam for the* purpose. Had he indeed made such a claim, little reliance could have been placed on his statements ; but, notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary, we have seen nothing in the whole tenor of his conduct with regard to his inventions to shake our confidence in his sincerity. In one respect No. 68 differs from the rest, viz. in the detail with which the device is described ; but this was most likely designedly done, in order to show its superiority over other " fire water-works," and to point out where it differed from them. Had it been an original idea, 432 Worcester's 6Sth Proposition. [Book IV. there could have been no more inducement to be thus explicit than with the rest ; but being of the same nature as others, he would naturally be led to notice the difference. Some writers are incredulous of his having ever put it in practice, notwithstanding his assertions, and the particulars he has specified ; and they further contend that his description was not sufficiently perspicuous to enable a person to make such a machine in his own time, and is not now. To neither of these positions can we assent ; and the latter, if true, does not affect the character of Worcester, either for veracity or ingenuity, since the avowed design of the Century was rather to enable himself than others to realize the inventions named. The description appears not only that of a machine in actual use, and from which a similar one might have been made, but, as just intimated, some particulars are mentioned apparently with the sole view of distin- guishing it from other devices of the same kind. Had he given a figure we should have learnt more of the details, but not of the general plan. The nature of the force employed (the expansive power of steam) he shows in the clearest light ; and its irresistible energy is admirably illus- trated by bursting the cannon : indeed, he could not possibly have se- lected any thing better adapted for the purpose. Few writers however believe the experiment was ever made, from the seeming difficulty of closing the broken end — a circumstance which, perhaps more than any other, has led people to doubt the accuracy of other of his statements : and it must be admitted that if he is not to be believed in this, his assertions in general must be received with great caution. But what great difficulty after all was there in driving a plug tight into the smoothly bored although broken end of a cannon, and securing the plug effectually in its place, by iron straps and screws round the trunnions ] Lest the idea of danger should be connected with his apparatus in the public mind, he remarks that he had a way of preventing his vessels from being exploded. He mentions at least three vessels ; one, a boiler in which to generate steam, the others, to receive the water previously to its being raised. A separate boiler shows that the apparatus was a modification of Porta's and Kircher's, (Nos. 137, 190) — and lest any one should suppose that the water was re- quired to be heated before it was elevated, he states distinctly that it was not : hence his device bore no resemblance to that of Decaus, (No. 188) — so far from it that the boiler, or " one vessel rarefied by fire," forced up forty times its contents " of cold water." It appears that the water was raised forty feet only ; perhaps being limited to that height by local cir- cumstances, or by the building in which the apparatus was erected. The pressure of steam in his boiler did not therefore much exceed SOlbs. on the inch. As the elevation exceeded that to which the liquid could be raised by atmospheric pressure, he also takes occasion to notice distinctly that it was not done by sucking ; and in this he possibly may allude to some su'jh modes of raising water, viz. by using the steam only to produce a vacuam, and to show the difference ; for, by employing its elastic force, he could raise water at one lift to any height, and his apparatus, instead of a limited application, was adapted to mines and pits of every depth, and hence he appropriately names it " a most forcible way." The receiving vessels were charged or filled " one after another," and the stream dis- charged from them was uninterrupted. One person only was required to attend to the fire under the boiler and " to turn two cocks," i. e. to admit steam alternately into each receiver, so that when one was " consumed " or emptied, the contents of the other began to " force " or be forced up, and the empty one to " fill " or be refilled with cold water, " and so suc- cessively." The vessels were large, or it took a long time to fill them. Chap. 6.] Three and four way Cocks. 433 since the man had abundant time to attend the fire in the intervals of turn- ing the cocks. Notwithstanding the comprehensive sketch that Worcester has given of this machine, a variety of opinions prevails respecting some of its parts, and the arrangement of the whole. In these respects scarcely two writers agree, while some differ widely. Some have supposed it to have consisted of two eolipiles, like those of Heron or Decaus, (Nos. 179 and 188) con- nected to one Ascending pipe, (see Galloway on the Steam-Engine) — an idea, we think, entirely out of the way, since such a plan would possess neither " merit " nor " originality," which the writer just named accords to Worcester's device. It is moreover opposed to the description given, which expressly states that the contents of one vessel rarefied by fire, driveth up forty of cold water ; whereas, by the supposed construction, all the water must have been heated to the boiling point before it could have been elevated at all, and to a temperature still higher before it was raised forty feet. The principal point undetermined is the mode by which the receivers were charged. Were they so placed that the water flowed into them through a pipe and cock 1 Or, were they wholly immersed in the tank, well or pond, and furnished with valves opening inwards for the admis- sion of the liquid, and to prevent its return when the steam was turned on 1 Or, were they placed above the water, and charged by atmospheric pressure 1 The first and second modes have been suggested, because Worcester says he did not raise the liquid by " sucking ;" but it does not appear that he meant any thing more than that the contents of the receivers were not expelled from them in this way. As the elevation to which water could be raised at one lift by his machine was only limited by the strength of the vessels, he very naturally observed, to remove an objection which he foresaw might be made to his assertion, that this was not effected by sucking, but by forcing the liquid up. His plan bears the same relation to a forcing pump, as using steam to produce a vacuum in a receiver does to a sucking one ; and in distinguishing between the two applications of the vapor to raise water, viz. by its condensation and its expansion, he uses the same terms that we do to show the difference between the two instruments just named. Of a forcing pump we say, it does not raise water by atmospheric pressure, but in opposition to it ; and that the ele- vation is only limited by the strength of the materials and the power em- ployed : now every person acquainted with the subject knows, that it is the expulsion of the water from the cylinder that is referred to, not the mode of filling it ; for almost invariably are the vessels or cylinders of forcing pumps charged by sucking, and so they were in Worcester's time. If the receivers were placed below the reservoir that supplied them, and were fed from it by a pipe, then as there were but two cocks used, they must have been such as are known by the term " three-way," — one passage to supply steam to each of the receivers, and the other water. There is no difficulty in admitting this, for both three and four way cocks were in use ages before Worcester's days. They are described in the Spiritalia, (problem 31) in Besson's Theatre, Fludd's Simia, (see our 160th illustration, page 354) Ozanam's Recreations, and in several other old au- thors. One form of them is seen at page 421. Tavernier found, in baths of the east, cocks which at the same mouth supplied " either hot water or cold," (Relation of the Seraglio) and they are described and figured in the Forcible Movements of Decaus : thus prop, xix of Leak's translation is " Of the cock with four vents," and its application is shown in a self-acting " Phneumatique Engine." M. Arago is therefore greatly mistaken, in his 55 434 Worcester's Machine seen by Cosmo de Medicis. [Book IV History of the Steam-Engine, in attributing the invention of the four- way cock to Papin. In his zeal to confer honor on the philosopher of Blois, he inadvertently overlooked the old engineer of Normandy. This plan of supplying Worcester's receivers is certainly far more probable than that of burying them in the water they were to raise. In- deed, we cannot perceive how the latter could answer at all, as the steam, would be condensed by the surrounding medium almost as fast as it en- tered the receivers ; so that instead of " one vessel of water rarefied by fire " driving up forty of cold water, it would hardly be able to drive up any. It appears to us impossible for ingenuity to suggest a worse plan, and yet several writers have adopted it.a As a proof that Worcester had an engine at work somewhat similar to the one referred to in his 68th proposition, the following extract from the Journal of Cosmo de Medicis, who visited England in the 17th century, has been adduced : " His high- ness, that he might not lose the day uselessly, went again, after dinner, to the other side of the city, extending his excursion as far as Vauxhall, be- yond the palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to see an hydraulic machine invented by my Lord Somerset, Marquis of Worcester. It raises water more than forty geometrical feet, by the power of one man only ; and in a very short space of time will draw up four vessels of water through a tube or channel not more than a span in width ; on which ac- count it is considered to be of greater service to the public than the other machine near Somerset-House." Now if this engine for raising water from the Thames, and which was managed by one man, was moved by steam — and it probably was — we may rest assured that Worcester knew better how to charge his receivers than by immersing them in the river, or in any tank supplied from it. Had he done so, the machine would never have been "considered of greater service to the public " than the engine at Somerset-House, which was worked by horses, and distributed water over " a great part of the city." (This last engine most likely con- sisted of pumps, such as were erected by Bulmer in 1594. See page 296.) As four vessels are here mentioned, there were probably that number of receivers employed. It would be strange if Worcester's receiving vessels were not charged by atmospheric pressure, considering the examples he had before him. To say nothing of this well known mode of charging eolipiles, and other vessels represented in the Spiritalia, (see 173 and 177 of our illustrations) both Porta and Fludd exhibited experiments expressly to show how water is raised into a vacuum formed by the condensation of vapor, (page 407) and Decaus gives such striking applications of it (page 380) that Worcester never could, with a knowledge of these, have plunged his receivers under water. But was he acquainted with the writings of these men 1 Unques- tionably he was. There is evidence in the Century that he examined every source of information, both at home and abroad, and with an eager- ness that has perhaps seldom been equalled; and then no person had greater facilities for ascertaining what had been accomplished. He was not a man to set about devising new modes of raising water while ignorant of old ones, or without perusing those writings which treated directly or indi- rectly upon the subject. Of all his researches, this of raising water was a See Millington's Epitome of Philosophy, and Stuart's Descriptive History of the Steam-Engine. The last named writer speaks however very differently in his valuable " Anecdotes of the Steam-Engine." Further reflection convinced him that Worcester was something more than a charlatan, and the machine in question very unlike the one represented in his previous work. Chap. 6.] Opinions respecting the 6St7i Proposition. 435 among the earliest and most favorite, as it was the last and most important ; and it was impossible for him and Kaltoff to have spent so many years as they did on this and other subjects, without improving old devices and introducing new ones. Then he was most likely acquainted with the ma- chines of Bacon, and with those of Ramseye, and with Ramseye himself, and Bushell too ; and also with the engine of motion noticed in the last chapter, of which he was possibly both the inventor and describer. So far therefore from Worcester's machine being imperfect, as some writers have supposed, we are justified in believing it was superior in its general plan, and in the arrangement and execution of its several parts, to any thing then extant, or previously proposed. It would be easy to devise a machine corresponding with these remarks and coinciding with the Marquis's account; but the intelligent reader is aware that it would be substantially the same as Savery's. It is surprising that some authors have supposed Worcester could not have filled his ves sels by atmospheric pressure, because, say they, the production of a vacuum by the -condensation of steam was not then known, " nor even thought of." But such writers were not aware of the experiments of Porta, and they forgot the employment of eolipiles. It has also been said that a ma- chine as perfect as Savery's, and one in which steam acted on a piston, was beyond the state of the arts in Worcester's days. The Century of Inventions is a proof to the contrary, and so is the Collection of Serviere. Every problem in the one, and every device in the other, indicates great excellence of design and ability of execution ; and both are replete with proofs of mechanical skill as well as fertility of invention. To realize Worcester's machine, it is contended that we must depend upon what he has said, and ori nothing more. But those who prescribe this rule do not themselves adhere to it ; and by following it, posterity could hardly comprehend a modern device from its modern description. As Worcester has not mentioned pipes or valves, neither of these essential elements of his apparatus could, by such a rule, be admitted : and if his words are to be construed literally, he employed two score of receivers ; and these were also elevated as well as the water within them : " one vessel of water rarefied by fire driveth up forty [vessels] of cold water." By the same rule it was the boiler, not the steam within it, (he never men- tions steam) that drove them up. Then there is the condensation of the steam in a receiver, after expelling the liquid, which is also not mentioned; and of course the vessel could not again be filled until this had taken place. On the same ground, a cock, tunnel and pipe or pump to feed the boiler, and a furnace door and grate bars, might be considered gratuitous addi- tions, since none of them are mentioned. Perhaps the most obscure part of the 68th problem, is that which relates to strengthening the vessels "by the force within them." Some persons suppose this refers to the figure of the vessels — others, to interior braces. The latter is the most reasonable, but seems hardly reconcilable with the the text, since the same term (force) is used as that by which the active power which rent the gun is designated. Notwithstanding the ambiguous manner in which Worcester drew up his Century of Inventions, there are strong indications of his having im- parted motion to a piston by steam, and that upon this he depended for being known to posterity. This was the crown of his glory as an inventor —the primary element in the " semi-omnipotent engine," which supported him under the contumely and neglect that he met with. Unfortunately for his fame, the state of the arts was not sufficiently advanced to convince his contemporaries of the importance of " the great machine," and it was 53 436 Last three Propositions in the Century of Inventions. [Book IV left for a future age to adopt. It does not appear equally clear that he was the first thus to use steam. From the description of the engine of motion mentioned at page 423, and the third and fifth devices in Ramseye's patent, it would seem that a working cylinder had been in previous use ; nor do we see how the experimenters of the 17th and previous centuries, when seeking for modes of employing steam as a motive agent, could miss it any more than their successors. It is one of those devices that would be detected by such men in every age, just as it has been by the makers of pumps and piston bellows. Fludd, Hoell, Belidor and Westgarth, all employed a piston and cylinder in pressure engines ; and some of them were not aware of their having been employed before in such machines. Guerricke, Papin and Newcomen at once adopted them in atmospheric en- gines, Haute feuille in explosive engines, and Watt and others in those moved by steam ; and why not Garay, Ramseye and Worcester ] And even the troublesome neighbor of Zeho also 1 It required no great sagacity in Worcester to apply steam to move the loaded piston in Fiudd's pressure engine, (page 354) and so simple an idea could hardly escape him after he had turned his attention to impart motion by steam. Indeed, he uses an expression which implies that it was a loaded piston to which he gave motion. But even if this idea escaped both Ramseye and Worcester, the apparatus of Guerricke so clearly exhibited the mode of applying steam to move a piston, that the latter could not possibly have remained any longer ignorant of it. When the three following propositions in the Century are duly consider- ed, every candid mind will, we think, admit that he was really in possession of an engine similar to Leopold's, or to Newcomen's, or to the single acting one of Watt : — " 98. An engine, so contrived, that working the primum mobile forward or backward, upward or downward, circularly or cornerwise, to and fro, streight, upright, or downright, yet the pretended operation continueth, and advanceth, none of the motions above-mentioned hindering, much less stopping, the other ; but unanimously and with harmony agreeing, they all augment and contribute strength unto the intended work and opera- tion ; and, therefore, I call this a semi-omnipotent engine, and do intend that a model thereof be buried with me. " 99. How to make one pound weight to raise an hundred as high as one pound falleth, and yet the hundred pound descending doth what no- thing less than one hundred pound can effect. " 100. Upon so potent a help as these two last-mentioned inventions, a water-work is, by many years experience and labor, so advantageously by me contrived, that a child's force bringeth up, an hundred foot highr an incredible quantity of water, even two foot diameter, so naturally, that the work will not be heard, even into the next room ; and with so great ease and geometrical symmetry, that though it work day and night, from one end of the year to the other, it will not require forty shillings repara- tion to the whole engine, nor hinder one day's work ; and I may boldly call it the most stupendous work in the whole world : not only, with little charge, to drain all sorts of mines, and furnish cities with water, though never so high seated, as well as to keep them sweet, running through several streets, and so performing the work of scavengers, as well as fur- nishing the inhabitants with sufficient water for their private occasions ; but likewise supplying rivers with sufficient to maintain and make them portable from town to town, and for the bettering of lands all the way it runs ; with many more advantageous and yet greater effects of profit ad- mirable and consequence. So that deservedly I deem this invention to Chap. 6.] Piston Steam-Engine described by Worcester. 437 crown my labours, to reward ray expences, and make my thoughts acqui- esce in way of further inventions ; this making up the whole century, and preventing any further trouble to the reader for the present, meaning to leave to posterity a book, wherein, under each of these heads, the means to put in execution, and visible trial, all and every of these inventions, with the shape and form of all things belonging to them, shall be printed by brass plates." To an ordinary reader all this appears preposterous, nor without the key can any satisfactory interpretation be given. The first seems incre- dible, the second impossible, and the third a proof of mental alienation. But in considering them it should be kept in mind, that Worcester's design was to explain the effects and uses of the mechanism he here refers to, and at the same time to conceal the moving principle. This he has accom- plished in the happiest manner ; and in doing it, has furnished a specimen of ingenuity, and of the fertility of his genius, almost equal to the inven- tions themselves. The three problems certainly refer to a cylindrical •steam-engine raising water by means of a pump. In No. 98 he speaks of steam only : this was the primum mobile whose effect was the same in whatever direction it was conveyed to the piston ; i. e. whether through ascending, descending, curved, angular or straight tubes, or through a number of them meeting in the cylinder from every imaginable direction ; the steam from one not interfering with, or being counteracted by, that from others, but the whole " unanimously and with harmony agreeing, they all augment and contribute strength unto the intended work and operation," viz. in pushing the piston along. It seems impossible for Worcester to have selected a feature of aeriform fluids better adapted for his purpose, or to have made use of it more skillfully. In concealing his meaning by riddles, he seems to hav-e equalled the most expert among the ancients.* In No. 99 he plays in a similar style upon ike piston, and has contrived with admirable tact to contradict (apparently) one of the most palpable maxims in mechanics, and thus to divert prying curiosity into .a wrong track. The piston was attached by its rod to one end of a working-beam, and a loaded pump-rod to the other, so that when the steam was turned on, the small piston (which he compares to one pound) was pushed down, and consequently the heavy pump-rod, or the water raised by it, (compared to a hundred pounds) -elevated " as high as the one pound falleth." In No. 100 he opens his views still further by stating it to be a water-work, for draining " all sorts of mines, and furnishing cities with abundance of water, though never so high seated," and that its action •depended upon the two last mentioned inventions (Nos. 98 and 9:9.) In Bother words, he here -contemplates the pump and steam-engine as a whole ; but lest the device should be too easily apprehended, he throws in a dash of the enigmatical, declaring k was so contrived " that a child's force bringeth up, an hundred foot high, an incredible quantity of water, even [a column] two foot diameter ;** that is, a -child could by a lever open and close the cocks, or valves, by which steam wag admitted into the cylinder, The uniformity of the movements of a ^team-engine, and the little noise attending them, — its working incessantly night and day, and the trifling -expense required to keep it in repair, are now well understood. * @f aneieut riddles, that of the Sphynx is one -of the neatest. What animal is it that walks on four legs in the morning, on two at noon, and on three in the evening ? CEdipua •explained it. The animal, he said, was man, who in the morning of life (in infancy) crept on his hands and feet, at the noon of life walked erect, and ifl the evening ,of BM ds.yc supported himself with a stick. 438 Steam Boat devised by Worcester. [Book IV Nothing more is necessary to convince us that Worcester here speaks of a steam-engine "working a pump. No other solution can be given — no other conclusion arrived at. No one could have written and spoken as he has done without having either seen or possessed a steam engine. Of its value he was fully aware ; for in the patent granted by Parliament in 1663 to himself and his heirs- for the long term of ninety years, those who pirated the invention were to. forfeit five pounds for every hour they used it. He tells us that it was- the result of " many years experience and labor," and when it was complete, he poured out his feelings in an ad- dress to the Deity, a copy of which was found among his papers, entitled " The Lord Marquis of Worcester's ejaculatory and extemporary thanks- giving prayer, when first with his corporeal eyes he did see finished a perfect trial of his water-commanding engine, delightful and useful to whomsoever hath in recommendation either knowledge, profit or pleasure/* Can any one suppose he here was mocking his Creator, when, in the pri- vacy of his closet, he prayed that he might not be " puffed up" with the knowledge of this great machine, and returned thanks next to his creation and redemption " for an insight into so great a secret of nature," and finally desired no greater monument than to have one buried with him ] Some/ men have lost their reason by the excitement attending their discoveries. Pythagoras offered a hecatomb to the gods, and Archimedes ran naked through the streets of the city. Worcester acted more like a philosopher and a Christian. Had he imitated the Syracusan, he had probably been more successful in securing attention to his discoveries. From the latter part of the 99th proposition, we infer that Worcester used a forcing pump, as he intimates that the effect was produced by the descent of a weight (on the pump-rod,) not by its ascent ; and this agrees with the description and figures of old water-engines. In " Art and Na- ture," published as before observed in 1633—4, they consist of forcing pumps worked by large tread and other wheels — i. e. the pistons are raised by these but are carried down by their own weight, or that of weights with which they are loaded. These weights were sometimes attached to the rod, at others to the end of the working-beams to which the rods were connected ; and hence they were named " beetle-beams," from their re- semblance to a large hammer. Loading the piston-rod of pumps did not therefore originate with Moreland or Newcomen, since the practice was older even than Worcester. The piston in Fludd's pressure engine is an example. Such pistons were named " hea vie forcers," (a solid piston being named " a forcer/' and the upper box of a common pump " a sucker.") As Worcester is believed to have applied steam to work a p«mp> it will be asked, did he not perceive its application as a mover of machinery in general — to propel boats,. &c. 1 Yes ;. and he has left a proof of this also. In a manuscript (see Stuart's Anecdotes, vol. i, 56) he observes, speaking of the device No. 9£, " I can make a vessel of as great a burden as the river can bear, to go against the stream, which the more rapid it is, the faster it shall advance, and the moveable part that works it, may be by one man still guided to take advantage of the stream and yet to steer the boat to any point ; and this, engine is applicable to. any vessel 04* boat \vhatsoever, without being therefore made on purpose ; and it worketh these effects : it roweth, it draweth, it driveth (if need be) to pass London Bridge against the stream at low water ; and a boat laying at anchor, the engine may be used for loading and unloading." Besides the Century^ Worcester published what he called "An exact and true Definition of th& most stupendous Water-commanding Engine,, invented, by the Right H?>* Chap. 6.] Old Patentees caricatured. 439 nourable, (and deservedly to be praised and admired), Edwavd Somerset, Lord Marquis of Worcester, and by his lordship himself presented to his most excellent Majesty Charles the Second, our most gracious Sovereign." This was a tract of twenty-two pages, and is supposed to have been printed for the purpose of forming a company to introduce the device. It is writ- ten in the same style as the Century, and instead of describing the machine is confined to an enumeration of its properties. In Worcester's day, patents for useful inventions were often classed with the most unrighteous monopolies, and the holders of them held in general contempt. This may serve to account in some measure for the neglect that Ramseye and Worcester's projects met with. The abomina- ble abuse which Elizabeth, James and Charles made of the power to grant patents, excited general disgust. Courtiers and others obtained monopo- lies for nearly all the chief branches of trade, and sold rights in them to others, so that prices were raised to an exorbitant height. Had patents been confined to new inventions, the result would have been beneficial ; but exclusive grants were obtained to work and sell the commonest articles, as salt, iron, lead, coals, and even bones and rags : with the monopolists of these, (Jiarpies and horseleeches as Elizabeth once called them) the au- thors of discoveries and improvements in the useful arts were confounded. In a masquerade got up for the entertainment of Charles I, in 1633, (among the managers of which were Noy the Attorney General, Sir John Finch and Mr. Selden) were several flings at monopolies, as hints for the king. In the " Antimasque of Projectors," says Maitland, " rode a fellow upon a little horse, with a great bit in his mouth ; and upon the man's head was a bit, with head-stall and reins fasten'd, and signified a projector who begged a patent, that none in the kingdom might ride their horses, but with such bits as they should buy of him. Then came another fellow with a bunch of carrots upon his head, and a capon upon his fist, describ- ing [representing] a projector who begged a patent of monopoly, as the first inventor of the art to feed capons with carrots ; and that none but himself should make use of that invention ; and have the privilege for fourteen years, according to the statute." Putting out of view his political conduct, the fate of Worcester resem- bled that of great inventors in almost every age. In some respects it was peculiarly severe. The heir of one of the richest and most powerful fami- lies of the land, he devoted his wealth and his energies, for more than one third of a century, to useful discoveries ; and in his old age he was re- duced to borrow small sums to meet his necessities ; — and when at last the profligate Charles was restored, although Worcester recovered his demesne, his dwellings, furniture, papers, models and machines had all been destroyed, and he was overwhelmed with debt. Still his energies were stimulated by a consciousness of the importance of his inventions, but which, alas! his contemporaries were unable to appreciate, except by insinuation!;! that they were the fruits of a partial insanity. Finally death stept in and closed his labors forever. Then it was that his widow, who was fully sensible of the value of his great machine, used her exertions to introduce it; but her confessor, a Roman Catholic priest, expostulated with her on the folly and sin of her conduct, and solemnly declared to her " on the faith of a priest," that if she did not cease her endeavors, she would not only lose the favor of heaven, but the use of her reason ! She died in 1681, arid the evil genius of Worcester did not even then cease its persecutions; for posterity, which generally corrects the errors of con- temporaries, has not yet done justice to his memory. While a few writers admit the value and originality of his inventions, and account him one of 440 Secret from Glauber. [Book IV the chief authors of the steam-engine, others condemn the " Century" as a mass of absurdities, and deny his ever having constructed a stearn-ma- chine at all. Those persons however who entertain the latter opinion, evince as much credulity as others, for they cannot deny that he has des- cribed the peculiar properties of the great chef dj ceuvre of human ingenuity (a high-pressure steam-engine) with a degree of accuracy of which history affords no parallel ; and hence, if he lacked truth he possessed prescience, and while they reject him as 'an inventor, they must admit him as a prophet. In the annals of the arts, there is not to be found a more singular exam- ple of devotion to their improvement, either as regards the number of years or the amount of treasure spent, the importance of the results or the ardor with which they were pursued, and the efforts made to excite public attention to them. Whatever others may have done before him, they left no account of their labors. Worcester is the first to communicate with the public by means of the press, and to give a tangible description (al- though an intentionally obscure one) of his discoveries — (for we do not reckon either the device of Branca or Decaus among such.) On this ac- count alone he is entitled to the praise of every modern engineer ; and had he but fulfilled his promise of leaving detailed accounts illustrated with engravings, his fame would have endured as long as the steam-engine itself. If he were not the great magician who evoked the mighty spirit that lay dormant in steam — who pointed out its power and the means of employing it — who revived the project of Graray and embodied and ex- tended the apparatus of Porta — it may be asked who was 1 And although none of his machines are extant, nor any of his immediate successors have had the candor to acknowledge their obligations to him, it is not less the duty of historians to uphold his claims until evidence shall be adduced to establish those of another — until some older and clearer fountain than his Century of Inventions shall be discovered — from which streams equally unacknowledged have been drawn. We cannot but hope that the obloquy and uncertainty under which his name is yet shrouded will eventually be dispersed, when he will be esteemed one of the most re- markable mechanicians of modern times, and be associated with the Dse- daluses and Archytases of antiquity. How similar to Worcester's manner of announcing his discoveries, is the following one from Glauber, an older writer ! It appears, at the first glance, as absurd as any thing in the Century. " A certain secret by the help whereof wines are easily transported from mountainous places, re- mote from rivers and destitute of other conveniences of carriage, so that the carrying of ten vessels is of cheaper price than, otJierwi.se, the carrying ofotie" This passage, he observes, offended many both learned and un- learned, who " believed the thing impossible, and nothing but dreams and fancies." He was so much quizzed about it as to regret having mentioned it '* Many judge this thing incredible because of the want of winged carts* that need not horses ! confirming one the other in unbeliefe, leading one another after the manner of the blind." His plan was to take the juice of the grape before fermentation commenced, and concentrate it by boiling till it became of " the consistence of honey." The water being thus eva- porated reduced the wine to less than one tenth of its former bulk and weight, while it still retained the strength and virtue of the whole ; for " new wine decocted and inspissated before its fermentation loseth nothing of its virtues :" hence it could be transported at one tenth the expense. When used, it was to be diluted with the same quantity of water as was evaporated from it. (Treatise on Philos. Furnaces : Lond. 1651, p. 353.) Chap. 7.] Anec&ote of Cromwell. 441 The adoption of some mode of concentrating wines as abcve, would produce an immense saving in their freight and carriage over the globe, arid would consequently greatly reduce their cost. It would also defeat the enormous frauds that are practiced in the manufacture of artificial wines — mixtures in which not a drop of the juice of the grape is said to enter. Glauber says, " the new wine is not to be inspissated in caul- drons," on account of the taste which it would contract from the metal. CHAPTER VII. Hautcfeuillc, Huyghens and Hooke— Moreland— His table of cylinders— His pumps worked by a cylindrical high-pressure steam-engine — He made no claim to a steam-engine in England — Simple de- vice by which he probably worked his plunger pumps — Inventions of his at Vauxhall — Anecdote of him from Evelyn's Diary — Early steam projectors courtiers — Ridiculous origin of some honors — Edict of Nantes — Papin — Digesters — Safety valve — Papin's plan to transmit power through pipes by means cf air — Cause of its failure — Another plan by compressed air — Papin's experiments to move a piston by gunpowder and by steam — The latter abandoned by him — The safety valve improved, not invented by Papin — Mercurial safety valves — Water lute — Steam machine of Papiu for raising- water and imparting motion to machinery. Towards the latter part of Worcester's life, a young Frenchman was fast rising into notice. This was John Hautefeuille, the son of a baker at Orleans, and one of the most brilliant mechanicians of the age. He was in his twentieth year when Worcester died. The device for regulating the vibration of the balance in watches by a spring, whence arose the name of pendulum watches, was invented by him, and was subsequently improved by Huyghens. Hautefeuille entered the church and became an abbe. He wrote several tracts on subjects connected with mechanics. In 1673 he proposed steam as a source of power, and applied it to give motion to a piston. Instead of aqueous vapor he also proposed the alter- nate evolution and condensation of the vapor of alcohol, in such a manner that none should be wasted ; and both he and Huyghens gave motion to pistons, by exploding small charges of gunpowder in cylinders. In 1678, Dr. Hooke proposed a steam-engine on the atmospheric principle, but the only information respecting it is in a memorandum to that effect found among the papers of Dr. Robison, the author of the treatise on Me- chanical Philosophy. These examples of imparting motion to a piston by aeriform fluids are interesting, inasmuch as they show that the device was not very novel in the middle of the 17th century, and that mechanics in different countries were familiar with it. We must now refer to another member of the English court, a contem- porary of Worcester, and like him actively engaged in the politics of the times, but who on the other hand adhered to the commonwealth until the latter part of Cromwell's administration. We are told that one evening, near midnight, an interview took place between Cromwell and Thurloe, 56 442 Moreland's [Book IV his secretary, at the house of die latter, on some state business that required the utmost secrecy. It was riot till the matter had been opened that the Protector became aware of a third person being in the room, when he is said to have drawn his dagger, and would have dispatched the supposed intruder, had not Thurloe guaranteed silence on the part of his sleeping attendant. This was Samuel Moreland, the inventor of the plunger pump. He was then employed by and in the confidence of the secretary, and was asleep, or affected to be so, during the interview. On this or some other occasion, he overheard the discussion of a plan to take off the exiled king; to whom he disclosed the whole, and was rewarded with a title at the restoration. It is not known when Moreland first turned his attention to mechanics: probably not till the restoration. As a favorite of Charles II, and a groom of the privy chamber, he must often have met Worcester at court ; while from their congenial habits and pursuits as mechanicians, they were most likely on familiar terms with each other. As master of mechanics to the king, Moreland was no doubt one of those who visited and examined the machine erected by Worcester at Vauxhall, and as a matter of course he often perused the Century of Inventions. He has not however had the ingenuousness to mention any of these things ; but notwithstanding this, we cannot believe so far as his applications of steam are concerned, that he was not indebted either to the machine itself, to the Century, or to personal in- tercourse with Worcester, and probably to them all. The first invention of Moreland that we hear of is the pump that he patented in 1675, and on which, according to one writer, he had previously spent twelve years. This carries the date back to about 1663, the year in which the Century was published. It is not at all unlikely that this famous pamphlet first induced Moreland (as well as many others) to turn his attention to mechanical discoveries, and furnished him with materials to work upon. In the manuscript volume presented by him to the French king in 1683, (see page 273) and now preserved in the British museum, there is a very short chapter on fire or steam engines, of which the following is a translation : — " The Principles of the new Force of Fire, invented by the Chevalier More- land,in the year 1682, and presented to his most Christian Majesty, 1683. " Water being evaporated by the force of fire, these vapors immediately require a greater space (about two thousand times) than the water occu- pied before, and too forcible to be always imprisoned, will burst a piece of cannon. But being governed according to the rules of statics, and re- duced by science to measure, weight and balance, then they will peace- ably carry their burden, (like good horses) and thus become of great use to mankind ; particularly to raise water according to the following table, which shows the number of pounds which can be raised 1800 times per hour to six inches in height, by cylinders half filled with water, as well as the different diameters and depths of those cylinders : — CYLINDERS. Pounds weight to be Diameter in Feet. Length in Feet. raised. 1 - ... 2 - - - - 15 2 - - - - 4 - - - - 120 3 - - - - 6 - - - - 405 4 ... - 8 - 960 5 - - - 10 ... 1875 6 - .. 12 ...- 3240 Chap. 7.] Tables of Cylinders. 443 Number of Cylinders, having a diameter required to raise the following- numbers of of 6 feet and a length of 12 feet, pounds weight of water. 1 - ... 3,240 2 - 6,480 3 - - 9,720 4 - - 12,960 5 - - 16,200 6 - - 19,440 7 - - 22,680 8 25,920 9 - - 29,160 10 - - 32,400 20 - - 64,800 30 - - 97,200 40 - - 129,600 50 - - 162,000 60 - - 194,400 70 - - - 226,800 80 - - - 259,200 90 - - 291,600" As this is all that Moreland has left on the subject, ft is difficult if not impossible to ascertain the precise construction of his apparatus. He is as silent respecting the manner and details by which the object was ac- complished as Worcester himself, and hence the steam-engine of one is quite as much a riddle as that of the other. Were these "cylinders" generators of steam — boilers 1 or were they separate vessels for the re- ception of water, and from which it was expelled by the vapor, as from the receivers of Savery 1 or, working cylinders, whose pistons were moved by the expansive force of steam ] or, lastly, were they pump chambers, by which the liquid was raised ] We suppose they were the last. Had they acted on the principle of Savery's receivers, they could never have been filled and discharged thirty times a minute, or ] 800 times an hour. Then as Moreland speaks only of high steam, it can hardly be imagined that he used or thought of using its expansive force to move pistons in the largest cylinders he has named, or made calculations for the employment of ninety of them. Where could he have got a boiler sufficiently strong and capacious to supply a cylinder twelve feet long and six in d'iameter, to say nothing of the difficulty of making such cylinders 1 Yet he speaks of them as nothing extraordinary. Now there was no difficulty in making them of all the dimensions namedybr his plunger pumps, (see No. 123 of our illustrations) for the simple reason that they were not required to be bored ; as the piston or plunger worked in contact only with the collar of leathers or stuffing box at the top. That it is to these he refers appears also from the terms, "reduced by science to measure, weight and balance," these being the very same that he used when he claimed, by the invention of this pump, to have " reduced the raising of water to Weight and mea- sure'' viz. by comparing the weight of the loaded plunger to the quantity of water displaced from the cylinder by its descent, (see page 273) — and thence the number of pounds raised by each cylinder in the preceding table, would be the sum of the weights on each plunger. The term "six inches" probably arose from that being the length of stroke of his experi- mental plunger; the length of the other cylinders and their effects being calculated from it. The cylinders being only " half filled with water/' would then refer to that quantity, or about that, being expelled at each 444 Mor eland's Steam-Engine. [Book IV. stroke, because the plungers would occupy one half only of the interior capacities of the cylinders. See the figure of one on page 272. If this view of Moreland's project be correct, then he merely used steam to work his plunger pump ; and therefore could not justly claim in 1682 to have invented, but only to have applied, the " force of fire." That he employed a simple form of a high-pressure engine, in other words moved a piston by the elasticity of the vapor, like Hautefeuille and Wor- cester, we have little doubt. His language intimates that steam was then rendered so manageable as to be applicable to numerous operations " for the benefit of mankind," of which the raising of water was the only one under his consideration. He obviously was in possession of the means of imparting motion to solids by steam, and thus making it peaceably to carry burdens, or overcome resistances, " like good horses :" — In- deed, one might almost suppose from his apparent carelessness in not mentioning the mode in which the steam was applied, viz. in giving motion to a piston, that explanation on this point was then no longer necessary. It is singular that Moreland made no claim for this invention in England. Why was this, if he had any ] Does it not imply that he did not invent the steam part of the apparatus '\ — else why not have patented it as well as the pump 1 for the object deserved it, and the prospects of remunera- tion were as promising at home as in France. The fact is, he could not claim the piston steam-engine where the labors of Worcester and others were still in remembrance, and where some of their machines were pro- bably extant. As an educated man and an enlightened mechanic, More land was not ignorant of the labors of Ramseye, Fludd, Hautefeuille and Worcester. It is pretty clear that he lit his candle at the lamps of these men, and particularly the latter ; for in the short chapter on sleam quoted above, he has copied both the ideas and the language of the author of the Century of Inventions. One observation is highly creditable to him, if he was the author of the experiments from which it was deduced, viz. the relative volume of steam and water. A quantity of the latter when con- verted into the former occupies, he observes, 2000 times its former space : modern experiments make it between 1800 and 1900 times. Of several simple modes by which Moreland may have applied steam to work his pumps, we shall mention one : — Let a small steam-cylinder, open at the top, be placed under the same end of a vibrating beam as the plunger of the pump ; the piston rods of both cylinders being connected to the beam : then, by turning a three-way steam-cock, the vapor would rush into the bottom of the steam-cylinder, and pushing up the piston, would raise the beam and the loaded plunger of the pump ; and by then turning the cock so as to close the communication between the cylinder and the boiler, and to open one between the former and the external air, the steam would escape, and the weights on the plunger would cause it, with the beam and steam-piston, to descend. By turning the steam-cock as before, the stroke would be repeated. The only objection to such a device is, that it is too crude to be attributed to Moreland ; for, from the advantages he possessed in knowing all that had been previously done, there can be little doubt that he was in possession of a self-acting engine, and of the knowledge of increasing its energy according to the different sized pumps required to be worked by it. Moreland possessed a natural turn for mechanics, and during the latter half of his life devoted himself almost exclusively to the invention and improvement of useful machinery. Were a description of his and Wor- cester's workshops now extant, it would possess more real interest than Chap. 7.] English Steam Machinists Courtiers. 445 any thing which history or tradition has handed down about round-heads and cavaliers. He had a place fitted up at the expense of government, with the requisite apparatus for carrying on his researches, at which Charles sometimes assisted ; and he speaks of having moreover expended large sums of his own in experiments, to please the king's fancy. Of the number of curious things here contrived, besides his speaking trumpet, capstan, pumps and stearn-engines, we may judge from what is reported of his dwelling house at Vauxhall, every part of which exhibited proofs of his inventive mind ; even the side table in his dining room was supplied with a large fountain, and the glasses stood under little streams of water. His coach too contained a portable kitchen with clock-work machinery, by which he could make soup, broil steaks, or roast a joint of meat. Vauxhall gardens, as a place of public resort, appear to have originated in the curious things constructed there by Moreland. Aubrey, in his His- tory of Surrey, states that in 1667, Sir Samuel " built a fine room at Vauxhall, the inside all of looking-glass, and fountains very pleasant to behold, which is much visited by strangers. It stands in the middle of the garden, covered with Cornish slate, on the point whereof he placed a punchinello very well carved, which held a dial ; but the winds have de- molished it." " The house [observes Sir John Hawkins] seems to have been rebuilt since the time that Sir Samuel Moreland dwelt in it ; and there being a large garden belonging to it planted with a great number of stately trees, and laid out in shady walks, it obtained the name of Spring Gardens, and the house being converted into a tavern or place of enter- tainment, it was frequented by the votaries of pleasure." Moreland's attachment to mechanics continued unabated in his old age, and even after his sight was lost. A pleasing proof of this is given in the diary of the celebrated John Evelyn. " October 25, 1695. The arch- bishop and myselfe went to Hammersmith to visite Sir Sam. Moreland t who was entirely blind ; a very mortifying sight. He shewed us his in- vention of writing, which was very ingenious, also his wooden kalender which instructed him all by feeling, and other pretty and useful inventions of mills, pumps &c. and the pump he had erected that serves water to his garden, and to passengers, with an inscription, and brings, from a filthy part of the Thames neere it, a most perfect and pure water. He had newly buried c£200 worth of music books, six feet under ground, being, as he said, love songs and vanity. He plays himselfe psalms and religious hymns on the Theobo." It is singular that almost all the early English steam machinists and supposed experimenters were courtiers. Bacon was Lord Chancellor; Ramseye, groom of the privy chamber to Charles I ; Worcester, a mar- quis and a general ; Moreland, a knight, and groom of the privy or bed chamber* to Charles II ; and Bushell and Savery held offices under the government. * It is a natural inquiry, what odd duties were attached to nuch an office, that gentlemen should desire to perform them? and particularly to such beasts as Charles II or George IV? An analysis of the honors which monarchs beslow, would afford amusement and instruction to American readers. It would add to the causes of honest exultation in the founders of our republic, for their excluding such fooleries from our shores. Our ex- ample in this respect as well as in others, is destined by Providence to exert a salutary influence on the world. A spirit of enquiry, and ideas of self respect, are already be- coming too prevalent for men to be kept much longer in a mere state of pupilage, to be governed like children through the medium of their senses, with pageants and high sounding titles, costumes and ceremonies, tinsel and gewgaws. Those persons who have not reflected on the subject, have need of a large share of faith to believe one half the circumstances connected with the origin and the conferring of titles, so truly pre 446 Papin. [Book IV The next experiments on steam of which we have any account were made by a Frenchman, but not in France. The reason of this may as well be noticed, since it will serve to show how great the blessings are which we enjoy over the people of the old world. Of all the different species of tyranny under which Europe has groaned and still groans, that by which the inhabitants are compelled to adopt such articles of religious faith as their governors choose to give them, is the most diabolical. This may be considered as the climax of human degradation, and of human oppression. No feeling mind can contemplate without horror the acts of those despots who, not content with consuming the substance and tyran- nizing over the bodies of their subjects, as they call them, insist on sub- duing their minds and consciences also ! — despots who, though covered with crime, blasphemously set themselves up as " Heads of the Church !" and " Defenders of the Faith !" and this too by the " grace of God !" — And these Heads of the Church, in order to defend " the Faith," have harassed, plundered, hanged, shot and even burnt alive both men and wo- men who would not acknowledge them as such ! Thus it was when the edict of Nantes, \vhich Henry IV established to protect his Protestant subjects in their civil and religious rights, was revoked by Louis XIV, it became the signal for the most violent persecutions of that people. Their children were taken from them and placed under Papist teachers — they were compelled by the penalty of military execution to embrace the Ro- man faith — a price was set on the heads of those who refused — a twentieth part of their whole number was butchered — half a million fled into other lands (as the Pilgrims did to this) that they might be at liberty to worship God according to their own consciences. In this way the most ingenious and avowedly the most industrious mechanics of France were driven into exile ; and by a righteous and retributive Providence, the staple ma- nufactures of that kingdom were transferred to other nations. Of those who took refuge in England was Papin, a native of Blois ; a physician and philosopher, and one of the most talented of the early ex- perimenters on steam and air : a man of whom any country might have been proud, and who, though France then cast out as a disgrace, she now claims honor to herself for having given him birth; and mourns that the records of his labors are only to be found in foreign archives. What a commentary on religious persecution, that the only claims which Roman Catholic France has or can set up for a share in the invention of the steam-engine, are based on the ingenuity of a Jew and a Protestant ! — on Solomon Decaus and Denys Papin. Through the influence of the celebrated Boyle, Papin was elected a fellow of the British Royal Society in December, 1680. He was an ac- tive and useful member, and contributed several interesting papers to the Society's Transactions. In 16S1 he invented a method of softening bones, with a view to extract nourishing food from them, viz. by submitting them to the action of steam at high temperatures, in close vessels named digesters. posterons are thpy. The Orders were derived from all sorts of things, as the moon, stars, dogs, horses, swords, flowers, stones, shells, birds, pigs, the Savior, angels, saints, women — and there was even an order of fools! — elephants, thistles, mountains, blood, wool, a table — and who does not know that " the most honorable " of English Orders at the present day are those of the bathing tub, or bath! and of the garter! The ceremo- nies attending these can only be equalled for mummeries and childish puerilities by the old interludes, as those of "The Bishop of Fools" and " The Abbot of Unreason." Such are the things that distinguish " the privileged orders" of Europe — that are deemed necessary to maintain " the dignity of the crown," — and the debasement of the people. Chap. 7.] Digesters and Safety- Valves. 447 There seems however to be some mistake respecting the date just men- tioned, which is the one generally assigned; for in the second volume of Boyle's Works (by Shaw, Lon. 1725) are details of experiments on boiling beef &c. " in screw'd vessels or digesters," in the beginning of the year 1G79 — thus : " January 29. Eight days ago I fill'd a screw'd vessel with beef and water together, and when it had continued over a moderate fire for 8 or 9 hours in balneo marice [a water bath] stopp'd also with a screw, I took the flesh out," &c. " Feb. 10. I boil'd a cow heel after the same manner as I had done the flesh above mention'd, but left it for four hours or more upon a moderate fire ; then the vessels being unstopp'd, we found the flesh exceedingly well boiled, and the bones so soft that they might be easily cut with a knife and eaten." " Feb. 12. I repeated the experiment and let the vessel remain exposed to the fire for 12 hours," &c. - - - - - " Hence it appears that many bones and hard tendons, which we daily throw away as unprofitable, may, by the help of a balneo marice stopp'd with a screw, be converted into good nourishment." pp. 550, 551. Papin's first digesters were as liable to be rent asunder as eolipiles placed on a fire with their orifices stopped. They are figured in detail in Poliniere's Experiences de Physique, 2d ed. Paris 1718. Each consisted of a short but very thick tube, of bell-metal, about a foot in length and five inches in diameter, with one end closed. The open end had a collar cast on it, to which the cap or cover was secured by clamps and a screw. The cover and end of the tube were ground together so as to fit air-tight, like a valve to its seat. A few bones and a little water were put in, and the cover screwed down ; the vessel was then laid in a horizontal position on a bed of charcoal in a long iron grate. The almost unavoidable rup- ture of these vessels, led Papin to the invention of the lever safety-valve, which he first applied to them, and afterwards to machines for raising water by steam. Notwithstanding the practical knowledge of the properties of steam acquired by the employment of digesters, Papin does not appear to have had any idea of using it as a mechanical agent till some years after. His first paper on the subject of raising water is dated July, 1685, (Phil. Trans, vol. xv, page 1093; Abridgment, vol. i, page 539) entitled "A New Way of Raising Water, enigmatically proposed." Three different solutions were sent in, after which he explained. The device was a small fountain, in which the liquid was raised by a piston bellows " put in some secret place, where a body may play the same." The application of the device was then pointed out, viz. to draw water from mines, by means of a run- ning stream located " far distant " from them : in other words, to transmit power to a considerable distance by means of air. His plan was this : a series of air-tight receivers were to be placed, 12 feet above each other, in the shaft ; the highest on a level with the ground, and the lowest 12 feet above the bottom of the pit. The water was to be transferred by the pressure of the atmosphere from one receiver to ano- ther, till it was discharged above. For this purpose a pipe extended from the water to the bottom of the lowest vessel ; another pipe from the lower part of this to the next one, and so on to the top ; and to prevent the water from running back, the upper orifice of each pipe was covered by a valve. The mode by which he alternately withdrew air from and admitted it into the receivers, constitutes the main feature of the plan. The upper parts of every two receivers were connected by branch pipes to a long one at- tached to the bottom of a separate air-pump, which was to be placed near a water-wheel impelled by the current ; and the piston was to be worked by a crank formed on the shaft of the wheel. The operation of two pumps 448 Papin' s Air Machines. [Book IV. and four receivers will be sufficient for the purpose of illustration. The pump cylinders were open at the top. They had no valves, and but one small opening at the bottom of each where the long air-pipe was united ; and the capacity of each cylinder was equal to that of two receivers. The cranks were so arranged that as one piston ascended the other descended. It was not two adjoining receivers that were connected to the same pump, but the lowest and the next but one above it, i. e. Nos. 1 and 3, while to Nos. 2 and 4 the pipe of the other pump was attached. Then as the piston of the first mentioned pump was raised, the air in Nos. 1 and 3 would be rarefied by rushing into the pump cylinder, and water would be forced into them by the atmosphere : in the mean time the other piston would produce a partial vacuum in Nos. 2 and 4, and they would become filled with the liquid contents of Nos. 1 and 3, in consequence of the air previously in these being driven back by the descent of the piston ; so that as the wheel revolved, water would constantly be entering one half of the receivers, and the contents of the other half be discharging. How the water was to be delivered from the highest receiver Papin has not informed us — probably through an orifice covered by a valve opening outwards. This project was ingenious, but of no practical value ; and it failed even in an experiment. In consequence of the extreme elasticity of air, and the great facility with which it dilates and is compressed, little or no effect was produced by the action of the pumps. When a piston descended, the air in the long pipe readily yielded to its impulse without imparting any very sensible compression in the receivers ; and on the piston's ascent, the air in the pipe again dilated and no sufficient rarefaction took place, in consequence of the great distance of the receiver from the exhausting apparatus. On the failure of this he devised another plan. Suppose, for example, that it was required to raise water out of a mine, and that there was no river to turn a wheel to work the pumps nearer than a mile. Papin pro- posed to place two air-pump cylinders fitted with pistons near the water- wheel, and other two at the mouth of the mine. These were to be con- nected by a pipe. The action of the pistons moved by the wheel was to compress the air in the cylinders, and in the pipe throughout its whole length, under the idea that when the pistons at one end of the pipe were depressed, those at the other would, by the communication of pressure, be elevated ; but although the pistons moved by the water-wheel con- densed the air, those at the mine stood still. The same cause that led Papin to abandon the first device, also rendered this one useless. If air were incompressible, the plan would have answered : had he employed water instead of air, the machine would have performed. Nothing daunted however, he tried again in 1686, and with a somewhat similar apparatus, but one whose action depended upon the rarefaction of air. Two large air cylinders, open at top, were placed a short distance apart at the mouth of the mine, and directly over them a cylindrical shaft or axle, supported on journals at each end. Instead of rods being attached to the pistons, a strong rope was fastened to the centre of each, and coiled three or four times round the axle in opposite directions, and fastened to it. Between the cylinders a large drum or wheel was fixed upon the axle, having a long rope wound round it, and the two ends (of the rope) suspended from opposite sides reached half way down the mine. To these ends two large buckets were attached, in which to raise the water. As the drum turned first one way and then the other, one bucket would be raised and the other lowered, like t%vo buckets suspended over a pulley in a well. The design Chap. 7.] Aw Machine — Four-way Cock. 449 of the air cylinders was therefore to impart an alternate movement to the axle and drum, and consequently to the buckets, by the descent of the pistons. (The power that forced these down was the pressure of the at- mosphere, and the manner of exciting it will presently be noticed.) Hence as one piston descended, the rope secured to it necessarily drew round the axle, and raised the other ; and when this one in its turn was forced down, the movement was reversed and the first one raised. A communication was made between the under side of the two cylinders by a pipe, and to this another long one was attached at right angles. This last pipe was to be of such a length as to reach to the place where an under or overshot wheel could be applied to work two air-pumps. These were to be furnished with valves and suckers like common sucking pumps, and to the lower part of each the exhausting pipe was to be connected by a branch. These pumps would therefore draw the air out of the cylinders at the mine, and consequently cause the pistons in them to descend. For this purpose, however, some device for alternately opening and closing the communication of each cylinder with the exhausting pipe was required; because if a vacuum were made in both cylinders at th§ same time, the pressure of the atmosphere on both pistons would be the same, and neither of them would move. To avoid this, Papin introduced at the intersection of the exhausting pipe with the one that connected the cylinders, a four- way cock — three of its passages being joined to the three branches formed by the intersection of the pipes, while the fourth one opened to the air. Thus, supposing the pumps to be constantly at work, and the plug of the cock so turned that the air in one cylinder at the mine might be drawn out, the atmosphere would then push down the piston, provided the ex- ternal air had access to the under side of the other piston. This was that which the fourth passage of the cock was designed to accomplish ; for whenever one cylinder was in communication with the exhausting pipe the other was in communication with this passage, and hence by turning the cock a constant reciprocating motion was imparted to the axle, drum and buckets. A project something like this, Papin thought, might be applied to work the pumps of the great machine at Marli, (see page 296) — the power of the water-wheels on the Seine being transmitted by air instead of chains &c. The device is creditable to his ingenuity, but he was doomed to experience further disappointment ; for, on trial, the air was so slowly drawn from the cylinders, and the difficulties of making the pistons work air-tight were so great, that no practical benefit could be derived by its adoption. He enlarged his pumps and diminished the bore of the pipes in order to accelerate the movement of the pistons, but without success. Had he placed a close vessel, several times larger than his cylinders, in communication with the farther end of the exhausting pipe, and in which a constant vacuum was maintained, then, on turning the cock, the air in the cylinder would have rushed into this vessel, and the piston would im- mediately begin to descend. This mode of transmitting power is capable of some useful applications. See an account of a proposed pneumatic rail- way in the current journals of the day. Although these attempts to raise water and transmit power by means of air were unsuccessful, they are interesting for the ingenuity displayed, and also because their failure led Papin to the employment of other agents. Having been invited by the Landgrave of Hesse to accept the professor- ship of mathematics in the university of Marpurg, in Germany, he left England in 1687; but shortly before his departure, he exhibited to the Royal Society some experiments on the application of gunpowder to pro 57 450 Papin' s Experiments on Steam. [Book IV. duce a vacuum. His apparatus consisted of a small cylinder, in which a piston like that of a common pump-sucker (viz. with an aperture covered by a valve) was fitted to move. The bottom of the cylinder was closed, and when the piston was near the top he exploded a small charge of powder below it, with the hope that the sudden blast of flame would expel all the air through the valve, which instantly closing would prevent its return. A vacuum being thus formed, the pressure of the atmosphere would be excited and might be used as a source of power. He could not however succeed in driving out all the air by the explosion, and the pressure on the piston, (ascertained by attaching weights to a rope passed over a pulley and connected to the piston rod) instead of being 13 or 14 pounds on the square inch, seldom exceeded six or seven. He published an account of these experiments the following year in the Acta Eruditorum, a journal published at Leipsic, and which was to Germany what the Journal des Savans was to France and the Philosophical Transactions to England. It was commenced in 1682, and both the latter in 1665. In 1690, Papin, unable to obtain a sufficient vacuum with gunpowder, turned his attention to steam. In one of his first essays he raised the piston by its expansive force ; and then allowing it time to cool and return to its former bulk as a liquid, the pressure of the air forced the piston back. His cylinder was 2?> inches diameter, and closed at the bottom. A small quantity of water was introduced through a hole in the piston, which was pushed down to exclude the air below it, and the hole then stopped by a plug". A brasier of burning coals was now applied to the bottom of the cylinder, and the piston consequently raised by the accumulating vapor. When the piston reached nearly to the top of the cylinder, it was retained, there by a latch slipped into a notch in the piston rod : the fire was now removed, and the steam quickly condensed by the lower temperature of the surrounding air : the latch was removed, and the atmosphere pressed the piston down and raised a load of 60 pounds, which was attached by a rope and pulley to the piston rod, being an effective force of 12 J pounds upon every square inch on the upper surface of the piston.* A device of this kind Papin thought was applicable to draw water from mines, and to row boats against wind and tide. It does not appear that Papin made any essential improvement on the apparatus during the four following years ; for when he published his " Recueil des diverse Pieces touchant quelques Nouvelles Machines, et autres Sujets Philosophiques, par M. D. Papin, Dr. en Med. ACasel, 1695," he still contemplated generating the steam in the cylinders ; and at every stroke these were either moved from the fire, or the fire from them. It is astonishing that the idea of a fixed and separate boiler did not occur to hirn. His plan was never tried except as an experiment ; and he subsequently abandoned the use of cylinders and pistons, and applied steam to raise water on the plan of Worcester's 6Sth proposition. This was unfortunate for his fame ; for in his experiments with the piston and cylinder he was in possession of every principle of the low-pressure steam-engine, and had he followed up the device he would have borne off the palm from all his contemporaries. Even the high-pressure engine, and all the glory of its development, was then within his reach ; but he was no practical me- chanic, and his thoughts became diverted into other channels. One of the a It is impossible to contemplate the various attempts of Papin to move a piston by atmospheric pressure, without noticing the analogy between his contrivances and that of Guerricke, and without thinking that the apparatus of this philosopher was present to his mind. Chap. 7.] Water Lute— Safety Valves. 45] most pleasing and honorable circumstances connected with the history of Papin's labors, is the candid admission of several English writers of hie great merits, and their generously expressing regret that his attention should have been diverted when he was so near realizing the most splen- did reward. His name is however inseparably connected with the steam- engine, and as long as the safety-valve shall be used the world will be his debtor. It should not however be supposed that safety-valves were wholly un- known before Papin's time ; on the contrary, they were frequently used, although this fact has not been noticed by any writer on the steam- engine. The liability of stills and retorts to be rent asunder led old che- mists to apply plugs to openings in those vessels, that the vapor might raise or drive them out and escape ere its tension exceeded the strength of the vessels : such were the plugs in ancient steam deities, see page 399. In some old works on distilling, conical plugs or valves are shown as fitted into cavities on the tops of boilers, and in some cases they were loaded. In the " Maison Rustique de Maistres Charles Estienne et Jean Liebault, Docteurs en Medecine," Paris, 1574, folio 196, 197, are figures of two close boilers in which the distilling vessels were heated : one formed a water, the other a vapor bath. On the top of each is a conical valve open- ing upwards. These served both to let out the superfluous steam and to introduce water. Glauber, who contributed several valuable additions to the mechanical department of chemistry, has figured and described, in his Treatise on Philosophical Furnaces, the modes by which he prevented glass retorts or stills from being burst by the vapor. A long stopple or conical valve was fitted to the neck of each, being ground air-tight to its seat, and loaded with a " cap of lead," so that when the steam became too " high " it slightly raised the valve and a portion escaped ; the valve then closed again of itself, " being pressed down with the leaden cap and so stopt close." (English Translation, Lond. 1651, p. 306.) The valve on Newcomeri's first engine was of this description. In the same work Glau- ber describes the most philosophical of all safety-valves, viz. a column of mercury enclosed in a bent tube which communicates with the boiler or still, somewhat like the modern mercurial gauge. He also describes that beautiful modification of it known among chemists as the water lute, or quicksilver lute : that is, around the mouth or neck of a vessel a deep cavity is formed and partly filled with water or mercury, as the case may be. A cylindrical vessel, open at top and closed at bottom, forms the cover: it is inverted, the open end being placed in the cavity and dipping as far into the liquid as the internal pressure may require. In " The Art of Distillation, or a Treatise of the choisest Spagyrical Experiments," &c. by John French, Doctor of Physic, Lond. 1651, the author describes the same devices for preventing the explosion of vessels as those mentioned bv Glauber. Speaking of the action of such safety-valves he observes, (page 7) " upon the top of a stopple [valve] there may be fastened some lead, that if the spirit be too strong, it will only heave up the stopple and let it fall down again." Papin's claim therefore is not to the valve itself, but to its improvement, or rather to the mode of applying it by means of a lever and moveable weight ; thereby not only preventing the valve from being blown entirely out of its place, but regulating the pressure at will, and rendering the device of universal application. It was not till some years after Savery had introduced his steam machine that Papin proposed the following one, which he announced in a work entitled " Notivelle maniere pour lever 1'eau par la force du feu, mise en lumie're, par M D. Papin. Docteur en Med. Prof, en Mathem. a Casel. 452 Steam Machine by Papin. [Book IV 1707." It is inserted here out of chronological order, to keen this notice of his labors unbroken. No. 192. Papin. A. D. 1707. A copper boiler, A, is set in brick work and furnished with a safety- valve, B, whose lever is loaded with the weight C. The steam pipe and cock D connect the boiler with the receiving cylinder F. A hollow float or piston is made to move easily in F, to prevent the steam from coming in contact with the water. A cavity is made in this float for the reception of an iron heater, Z, designed to keep up the temperature of the steam when the latter is admitted into F. The heater is admitted through the opening on the top of F, which is closed by the valve Gr. X, a funnel through which the water to be raised is introduced, which is kept from re- turning by closing the cock or valve H. The lower part of F is connected with the rising main K by a curved and tapered tube. The pipe K ter- minates in a reservoir or air chamber, whence the water is discharged by the pipe O upon an overshot wheel, or conveyed to the place where it may be required. If the receiver be charged from below, a suction pipe (im- perfectly represented by the pipe I) was continued to it from the under side of the curved pipe. The steam flowing through the pipe D presses down the piston, and the water beneath it is forced up the pipe K, (the valve at the lower part of K preventing its return.) When the piston has reached the bottom of F, the cock D is shut and the one marked E is opened. H is then opened, and the water rushes in and drives up the piston as before, when the operation is repeated. Water was raised by one of these machines to an elevation of 70 feet, whence it descended and formed a jet d'eau in the court of the Hessian Academy of Arts. Belidor inserted a figure and description of this machine in the second volume of his Architecture Hydraulique, p. 328. Chap. 8.] Thomas Savery. 453 CHAPTER VIII. Experimenters contemporary with Papin— Savery— This engineer publishes his inventions— His project for propelling vessels— Ridicules the Surveyor of the Navy for opposing it— His first experiments on steam made in a tavern — Account of them by Desaguliers and Switzer — Savery's first engine — Its operation — Engine with a single receiver — Savery's improved engine described — Gauge cocks — Excel- lent features of his improved engine — Its various parts connected by coupling screws — Had no safety- valve — Rejected by miners on account of the danger from the boilers exploding — Solder melted by steam — Opinions respecting the origin of Savery's engine — It bears no relation to the piston engine — Modifications of Savery's engine by Desaguliers, Leopold, Blakey and others — Rivatz — Engines by Gensanne — De Moura — De Rigny — Francois and others — Amonton's fire mill — Newcomen and Cawley — Their engine superior to Savery's— Newcomen acquainted with the previous experiments of Papin— Circumstances favorable to the introduction of Newcomen's engine — Description of it — Condensation by injection discovered by chance — Chains and Sectors — Savery's claim to a share in Newcomen's patent an unjust one — Merits of Newcomen and Cawley. Both philosophers and mechanics were engaged in experiments on air and steam machines about the same time as Papin. Of these, Savery, Amontons, Newcomen and Cawley were the most successful. The two last named have not generally been considered so early in the field ; but, from an observation of Switzer, such appears to have been the case. As weekly and monthly ' Journals of Arts ' and ' Mechanics' Magazines ' had not then been introduced, those who were disposed to communicate their discoveries to the public had no appropriate medium for doing so, except by a separate publication, and this mode but an exceedingly small number of inventors ever adopted : hence it is that not only the dates of several modern inventions are uncertain, but numerous devices and valuable floating thoughts have, with their authors, been constantly passing into utter oblivion. The history of steam as a mechanical agent affords signal proofs of the advantages of inventors recording their ideas : thus the name of Decaus had long been forgotten, when an old tract of his was disco- vered containing the device we have figured at page 410. This he pro- bably considered the most trifling thing in his book, yet on account of it a place has been claimed for him among the immortal authors of the steam- engine. Moreland, of whose speaking trumpet an account was inserted in the sixf,h volume of the Philosophical Transactions, and his ideas of the power required to force water to different elevations in the ninth, omitted to publish through the same or any other medium a description of his steam-engine ; and by this neglect has lost a large portion of honor that might have been attached to his name. The same may be said of Garay, Ramseye and Worcester. Savery, however, knew better, for he laid his machine before the Royal Society and got it noticed in their Transactions; and when he had subsequently improved it, he published a separate ac- count with illustrations ; in consequence of which he has sometimes been considered the author as well as describer of the first working steam- engine. Of Savery's personal history, less has transpired than of either More- land's or Worcester's. He evidently was a man of great energy, who raised himself from obscurity by his talents — a self-made man. According to a tradition he commenced life as a working miner, and in process of time 454 Savery's Project for propelling Boats. [Book IV. became an engineer and thus acquired the title of Captain, agreeably to a custom which is said still to prevail among the Cornish miners. He seems to have acquired a competence, if not wealth, previous to the com- mencement of his experiments on steam, and we shall find that he was as independent in his spirit as in his purse. Switzer, who was intimately acquainted with him, says he was a member of the board of commissioners for the sick and wounded ; but this was probably in the latter part of his Hie, and subsequent to the introduction of his steam machines. The first invention of Savery that we meet with is in a pamphlet pub- lished by him in 1698, on the propulsion of ships in a calm. His plan consisted of paddle-wheels to be worked by the crew. In the first edition of Harris's Lexicon Technicum, A. D. 1704, there is a description, and in the second, 1710, a figure of Savery's " engine for rowing ships." A horizontal shaft passes through the vessel between decks, and to each end a paddle-wheel is attached. On the middle of the shaft is a pinion or trundle wheel, and underneath a capstan upon which a cog wheel is fixed, whose teeth are made to work between those of the pinion. A number of bars are arranged in the capstan, and the crew were to apply their strength to these as in raising an anchor. As the officers of the admiralty after examination declined to adopt it, Savery tells them he had two other important inventions, which he would not disclose until they did him jus- tice in this ! He even held up his opponents to ridicule. On the Surveyor of the Navy, who reported against the adoption of his plan as one neither new nor useful, he was very severe. At that time large wigs were com- monly worn, and Savery gave a smart rap on that which covered the head of his official adversary. " It is [he observed] as common for lies and nonsense to be disguised by a jingle of words, as for a blockhead to be hid by abundance of peruke." Had Savery been of a timid disposition, we should probably never have heard of him. After enduring one or two rebuffs in attempting to introduce his inventions, he would have re- tired and sunk unknown into the grave, like thousands of inventors before him. Of the few incidents preserved respecting his private life, there are two from which it seems that he loved a glass of good wine and a pipe of to- bacco ; and that, to obtain them, he was in the habit of visiting a tavern. Let not those who eschew such things complain of us for unnecessarily mentioning them, for Savery's first experiments on steam were made in a bar-room, with a wine flask and a tobacco pipe. At such a place and with such implements he is said to have become acquainted with the principles of his famous machine. The circumstance has not been commonly known, or some scientific Boniface would, long ere now, have adopted Savery's head for a sign ; and artists would have made him, in the act of experi- menting, the subject of a picture. There is a rich but neglected field for historical painters in the facts and incidents connected with the origin and development of useful mechanism. According to Desaguliers, Savery declared that he found out the power of steam by chance, and in the following manner : " Having drank a flask of Florence [wine] at a tavern, and thrown the empty flask upon the fire, he call'd for a bason of water to wash his hands, and perceiving that the little wine left in the flask had filled up the flask with steam, he took the flask by the neck and plunged the mouth of it under the surface of the water in the bason ; and the water of the bason was immediately driven up into the flask by the pressure of the air."* This illustration of the ascent * Exper. Philosophy, edition of 1744, vol. ii, page 466. Chap. 8.] His first Steam-Engine, 455 of water into a vessel from which the air had been expelled by steam, was of course not new in Savery's time, although it appears to have been so to him. Switzer gives a different account. " The first hint from which it is said he took this engine was from a tobacco pipe, which he immers'd to wash or cool it, as is sometimes done : he discover'd by the rarefaction of the air in the tube, by the heat or steam of the water and the gravitation or impulse of the exterior air, that the water was made to spring through the tube of the pipe in a wonderful surprising manner."* It was an old practice of veteran smokers, when their (clay) pipes became blackened through use, and more particularly when choked or furred up, to place them in a bright fire till they became red hot, then to remove and allow them to cool. By this operation they were whitened and purified like the incombustible cloth of the ancients, which was cleansed in the same way. But frequently when taken from the fire the mouths of the pipes were plunged slowly into water; steam was thus formed, and rushing through the tubes, was sometimes preceded, often accompanied, and sometime? followed by jets of water. There are however different causes, and far from obvious ones, for the liquid issuing through tobacco pipes under such circumstances, so that it is difficult to perceive what inference Savery drey from the experiment. But whatever may have led Savery to the subject of steam, he had so far matured his ideas respecting its application to raise water as to erect several engines, and to secure a patent as early as 1698. In June of the following year he submitted a working model to the Royal So ciety, and made successful experi- ments with it at the same time. A figure of this engine was published in the Transactions of that year, and may also be found in the first volume of Lowthorp's Abridgment. No. 193 is a copy. It consisted of a close boiler, B, set in a brick furnace A, and two receivers D I) support- ed on a stand, and made of strong copper and air-tight. A suction pipe whose lower end descends into a well, or other place whence water is to be raised, (which may be about 24 feet below D D) and whose up- per part, divided into two branches, communicates with the top of the receivers. Each branch is furnished with a valve at E E, opening up wards, to prevent the water from returning when once raised. The lower part of the forcing pipe G has also two branches, F F, which communicate with the bottom of the receivers, and these branches have also valves, E E, like the others opening upwards. Each receiver has a communication with the upper part of the boiler by steam pipes and cocks C C. The operation was as follows : — The boiler was two thirds filled witn No. 193. Savery's First Engine. A. D. 1698. Hydrostatics, edition of]729, page 325. 456 Savery' s Single Engine. [Book IV. water, a fira made under it and the steam raised. One of the cocks was then opened, and the steam passing through filled the receiver by driving the air previously within it into the forcing pipe : the cock was then closed, and the steam within the receiver soon became condensed by the cold air in contact with its exterior surface, or by pouring cold water upon it ; hence a vacuum was produced within, and consequently the water in which the lower end of the suction pipe was immersed was driven up by the pressure of the atmosphere so as to fill the void. When this had taken place the same cock was again opened, and the steam rushing in urged by its expansive force the contents of the receiver up the forcing pipe. In this manner water was alternately raised into and expelled from both vessels. As a practical miner, and consequently conversant with the subject of raising water on a large scale, Savery was better qualified to carry his views into operation than a mere philosopher. His first essay in employing steam was a proof of this. " I have heard him say myself [observes S witzer] that the very first time he play'd, it was in a potter's house at Lambeth, where tho' it was a small engine, yet it [the water] forc'd its way through the roof, and struck up the tiles in a manner that surpris'd all the spectators." No. 194. Savery's Single Engine. Sometimes Savery employed but one receiver. No. 194 represents an engine of this kind, erected by him at Kensington. A description of it was first published by Mr. Bradley in his " New Improvements of Planting and Gardening." It is also figured and described by Switzer, who exa- mined it and thought it " the plainest and best proportion'd of any " he had seen. Its effects were considered proportionally greater than those with two receivers. C, a spherical boiler of the capacity of forty gallons, and charged through the tunnel. B, the receiver, which held thirteen gallons A, the suction pipe, sixteen feet long and three inches bore. D, the forc- ing pipe, of the same bore and forty two feet long. A valve opening upwards was placed in A, and another at the lower part of D, at H. E, the steam pipe, an inch in diameter. G, a sliding valve or cock, furnished with a lever handle. F, a cock in the forcing pipe, to admit cold water Chap. 8.] 'Publication of the Miner's Friend. 457 to flow upon the receiver. A pipe attached to the tunnel descended into the boiler and served the purpose of a gauge cock. The operation will be understood from the description of figure No. 193. By turning the handle of G steam is admitted into B, and as soon as the air is expelled from the latter, G is closed and F opened ; the affusion of cold water (see the figure) quickly condenses the contained vapor, and hence the receiver becomes charged with water by the pressure of the atmosphere through the suction pipe A. F is then shut and G opened, when the steam issuing from the boiler displaces the water from the re- ceiver, and having no other way to escape the liquid is driven up the pipe D into the reservoir prepared to receive it. As soon as all the water is expelled from the receiver, (which was known by applying the hand to the lower part, for it would be hot) G is shut and F again opened, when the operation is repeated as before. " When this engine begins to work [says Switzer] you may raise four of the receivers full in one minute, which is fifty two gallons, [less the quan- tities drawn from F for the purposes of condensation] — and at that rate in an hour's time may be flung up 3120 gallons. The prime cost of such an engine is about fifty pound, as I myself have had it from the ingenious author's own mouth. It must be noted that this engine is but a small one, in comparison of many others of this kind that are made for coal-works ; but this is sufficient for any reasonable family, and other uses required for it in watering all middling gardens." Here is no provision made to replenish the boiler with water except through the tunnel : hence the working of the machine had to be stopped, and the steam within the boiler allowed to escape, before a fresh supply could be admitted. Under such circumstances the boilers were very liable to become injured by the fire when the water became low. They were also exposed to destruction from another cause, the force of the steam; for they had no safety-valves to regulate it, and hence the necessity of the following instructions : " When you have rais'd water enough, and you design to leave off working the engine, take away all the fire from under the boiler, and open the cock [connected to the tunnel] to let out the steam, which would otherwise, was it to remain confin'd, perhaps burst the engine" Savery, from his profession, was aware of the want of an improved mode of draining mines. The influence of the useful arts in enriching a nation was then beginning to be understood. A stimulus was imparted to manufactures, and the demand for coal and the ores of England rapidly increased. As a necessary consequence the depth of the mines increased also ; and hence proprietors became anxious to possess some device for clearing them of water, and by which the old, inefficient and excessively expensive horse-gins and buckets might be dispensed with. The cost of drainage was so great in some mines, that their produce hardly equalled the cost of working them : in one mine five hundred horses were constantly employed. Numerous novel projects had been tried and abandoned : what they were we are not informed, but as Ramseye and Worcester and probably others had proposed fire machines for the purpose, steam had probably been tried in some way or other and had failed. Having greatly improved his machine, Savery published an account of it, illustrated with engravings, in a pamphlet entitled The Miner's Friend ; or a Description of an Engine for Raising Water by Fire, with an Answer to the Objections against it. London, printed for S. Crouch, 1702. In his address he begs proprietors not to let the failure of other plans prejudice them against the trial of his. " Its power [he observes] is in a manner infinite and unlimited, 58 453 Savery's Double Engine. [Book IV and will draw you water 500 or a 1000 feet high, were any pit so deep. I dare undertake that this engine shall raise you as much water for eight-pence, as will cost you a shilling to raise the like with your old engines." The original figures in the Miner's Friend were inserted in Harris's Lexicon Technicum, in 1704, and copied into Switzer's Hydro- statics in 1729, and by Desaguliers in his Experimental Philosophy in 1744, (which works are before us) and subsequently into almost every treatise on the steam-engine. No. 195 is a reduced copy : the figure of the fire man is an addition. No. 195. Savery's Double Engine. A. D. 1702. A detailed description of this elegant apparatus is not necessary, since its operation will be understood from the explanation of the two preceding machines. It is substantially the same as No. 193, except that this one has two boilers, which are heated by separate furnaces, Gr H. The addi tional boiler G was designed merely to supply the other with hot water, and need not therefore divert the attention of the reader in realizing the working of the essential parts. The upper end of the suction pipe shown at the mouth of the pit consists of two branches, which are connected to similar branches on the lower part of the forcing pipe N. The suction valves are at B A, and the forcing ones at E F, all opening upwards. Chap. 8.] Its excellent features — Coupling Screws. 459 Between these valves two short curved tubes connect the bottoms of the receivers I M with the branches, as represented, and two other bent tubes, P Q, unite the top of the receivers with the boiler H. On the top of this ooiler, and forming a part of it, is a stout round plate, having two openings of the same size as the bore of the tubes last mentioned. In these open- ings the two steam tubes P Q, terminate. Between the openings, and on the under side of the plate, is a moveable disk, which by a short arm is connected to an axle and moved by the long lever shown on the top of the boiler ; so that by moving this lever the disk can be made to close either opening, so as to admit or exclude steam from the receivers, and answering every purpose of a three-way cock. It is made somewhat on the plan of the one in No. 189, page 421. The face of the disk is ground smooth, so as to fit close to the under side of the plate, against which it is pressed by the steam. The perpendicular axle by which the disk is turned passes through the plate, and the opening is made tight by a stuffing box. (The plate and moveable disk are represented in the small figure at the top, one of the openings being covered by the disk and the other exposed.) A small cistern, U, is placed over the receivers, and kept supplied with cold water from the forcing pipe by means of a ball cock, viz. a cock that is opened and shut by a ball floating in the cistern. From the bottom of this cistern a short pipe, T, proceeds; and to it is connected, by a swivel joint or stuffing box, another one at right angles. This pipe furnishes water to condense the steam in the receivers, over both of which it can be moved by the rod attached to the plug of the cock as shown in the figure. The upper cistern denotes the place where the water raised by the engine is to be discharged. A communication is made between the boilers by a siphon or bent tube, R, whose legs extend nearly to the bottom of the boilers. In the leg within the small boiler is a valve opening upwards, which permits the water of Gr to pass into H, but prevents any returning from the latter. When the attendant wishes to inject into H a fresh supply of water, he increases the little fire kept up under the boiler G, (which is always kept supplied with water by the pipe S,) and as soon as the liquid boils and the force of the steam exceeds that in H, the contents of Gr, both steam and hot water, are forced through the valve ; and thus H is kept supplied without the action of the machine being stopped. The cock on the pipe S is then opened, the small boiler again charged, and the water becomes gi-adually heated ; so that by the time it is wanted in the other boiler, a small addition to the fuel quickly raises its temperature, and it is again forced in as before. The quantity of water in the boilers was ascertained by gauge cocks. These were inserted at the top, (see figure) and pipes soldered to them descended to different depths. The principal boiler had two of these, the other but one. The general arrangement of this engine and the adaptation of its various parts to each other are admirable, and could hardly be improved. The obviously good workmanship — the improved form of the receivers — and the connection of these with the boilers and pipes, and the latter with each other, by coupling screws, thus securing easy access to the valves — are highly creditable to Savery and the workmen he employed. Every part was made of the best materials. The cocks, coupling screws, regulator, valves, and all the pipes immediately connected with them, were of brass; while the boilers, receivers and suction pipes were of " the best hammered copper, of sufficient thickness to sustain the force of the working engine : in short, [continues the -inventor] the engine is so naturally adapted to 460 Joints melted by Steam — Origin of Savery1 s Engine, [Book IV perform what is required, that even those of the most ordinary and meanest capacity may work it for some years without injury, if not hired or em- ploy'd by some base person on purpose to destroy it;" — that is, by inat- tention or design to permit steam to accumulate within the boilers till they were burst. Some device to prevent this was wanting1, viz. a safety-valve or something analogous to it ; and it is astonishing that he never thought of such a thing, but permitted his machine for lack of it to fall into dis- repute. The miners could not be induced to adopt it, in consequence of the danger of explosion. " Savery [says Desaguliers] made a great many experiments to bring this machine to perfection, and did erect several, which raised water very well for gentlemen's seats, but could not succeed for mines, or supplying towns where the water was to be raised very high and in great quantities ; for then the steam required being boiled up to such a strength, as to be ready to tear all the vessels to pieces. I have known Captain Savery at York's Buildings make steam 8 or 10 times stronger than common air ; and then its heat was so great, that it would melt common solder, and its strength so great as to blow open several of the joints of his machine ; so that he was forced to be at the pains and charge to have all his joints soldered with spelter or hard solder." Ex. Philos. ii, 467. There has been much discussion respecting the origin of this famous engine ; some writers contending that it was wholly Savery's own, others that he derived it from one of Worcester's, or from the Century of In- ventions. Desaguliers asserts that Savery, to conceal its origin, " bought up all the Marquis of Worcester's books that he could purchase in Pater- noster Row, and elsewhere, and burn'd *em in the presence of the gentle- man his friend, who told me this." But as Savery denied being indebted to any one for it, and as lie was certainly a man of great mechanical genius, it is probable that the doctor was imposed upon by his informant. It is not likely that Savery would have committed such an act in the presence of a witness, when there was not only no necessity for one, but every possible inducement for secrecy. Many years before the publication of this charge by Desaguliers (in 1744) the opinion was prevalent that the machine was not original with Savery. In 1729 Switzer remarks, "others say that the learned Marquis of Worcester, in his Century of Inventions, which book I have not seen, gave the first hint for this raising of water." (Hydr. 325.) Dr. Hutton, in his Math. Dictionary, asserts, though on what authority we know not, that Savery knew more of Moreland's experiments than he was willing to acknowledge ; and Desaguliers maintains that he invented the story of the experiment with the wine flask " to make people believe that he had not got the idea from Worcester's Century of Inventions." In reply to the above it may be remarked, that independently of those coincidences of thought that always have and will happen to inventors, there are circumstances which strongly corroborate Savery's own account In the first place, the experiment with the wine flask was one very likely to occur in the manner he has mentioned, and to a mind like his would naturally lead to a practical application of it. His thoughts, we are told, " were always employed in hydrostatics or hydraulics, or in the improve- ment of water-works." Then there is no evidence that he was much of a reader : had he been conversant with books, he would not have proposed the propulsion of vessels with paddle-wheels as new. These occurred to him as they have done to thousands in every age when devising means to increase the speed of boats ; and so it may have been with his steam ma- Chap. 8.] Modifications of Savery's Engine. 461 chine : a device like it would naturally be the result of the experiment with the wine flask, and even without it, when his thoughts were once directed to raising water by steam. Moreover, Savery was ignorant of the safety-valve, the very thing wanted to remove the most formidable objection to his machine ; and yet, as we have shown, he might have found it in some popular works on chemistry and distillation, — besides which, Papin's improved application of it had been published several years. (The single machine figured No. 194 was erected by Savery himself as late as 1711 or '12, and it had no safety-valve.) But whether he derived the hint from Worcester or not, he is entitled to all the honor he has received. He was the first effectually to introduce the device, and the first to publish a description of it in detail. He con- cealed nothing, but, like a sensible and practical man, explained the whole, and left it to its own merits. No one's claims to a place in the history of the steam-engine were better earned, whether he be considered the rein ventor, or improver only of Worcester's 68th proposition. There are several points of resemblance in the characters of Savery and Oliver Evans. By their energy and indomitable perseverance they forced their inventions into public notice in spite of public apathy, and so worked their way into the temple of honorable fame. Both published curious pamphlets, that will preserve their names and inventions from oblivion. But Savery's steam-engine does not belong to the same family as the modern one, nor can he be said to have contributed to the invention of the latter, except so far as making his contemporaries more familiar with the mechanical properties of aqueous vapor. 'Tis true he employed this fluid in close vessels, and so far he succeeded ; but his ideas seem to have been wholly confined to its application to raise water, and in the most direct manner — hence he never thought of pistons. Had he turned his attention to impart motion to one of these, he would have left little for his successors to do ; but as it was, he did not lead engineers any nearer to the piston engine. He proposed to propel machinery by discharging the water he raised upon an overshot wheel ; hence his patent was " for raising water, and occasioning motion to all sorts of mill work." But this was obviously an afterthought, an accidental result, rather than one originally designed or looked for. A piston and cylinder only could have given his machine a permanent place in the arts, either as a hydraulic or a motive one. He accomplished almost all that could be realized without them. The most splendid talents of the present times could have done little more. Papin abandoned the piston and cylinder, and in doing so quenched a halo of glory that would have shone round his name for ever ; and Savery, for want of them, notwithstanding his ingenuity, perseverance and partial success, lived to see his device in a great measure laid aside. Savery died about the year 1716. As Savery's engine became known, several additions to and modifica- tions of it were proposed. A few of these may be noticed : — Drs. Desaguliers and Gravesande, from some experiments, concluded that single engines were more economical than double ones — a single receiver being " emptied three times whilst two succeeding ones [of a double engine] could be emptied but once a piece." Of single engines Desaguliers erected seven between the years 1717 and 1744. "The first was for the late Czar, Peter I, for his garden at Petersburg!!, where it was set up. The boiler of this engine was spherical, (as they must all be in this way, when the steam is much stronger than air) and held between five and six hogsheads ; and the receiver held one hogshead, and was filled and emptied four times in a minute. The water was drawn up by 462 Leopold — Blakey — Rivatz. [Book IV. auction or the pressure of the atmosphere 29 feet high, out of a well, and then pressed up 11 feet higher. Another engine of this sort which I put, up for a friend about five and twenty years ago, [1719] drew up the water 29 feet from the well, and then it was forced up by the pressure of the stearn 24 feet higher," &c. But these "improved" engines differed in reality but little from Savery's single one, No. 194. Desaguliers furnished his boiler with Papin's steelyard safety-valve; a three-way cock alternately admitted steam into the receiver and water from the forcing pipe to con- dense it : in other respects the engines were much the same. Savery made no provision to secure his boilers from being exploded ; but the safety-valve was not always a preventive in former times, any more than at present. " About three years ago [says Desaguliers] a man who was entirely ignorant of the nature of the engine, and without any instructions, undertook to work it ; and having hung the weight at the farther end of the steel-yard, in order to collect more steam to make his work the quicker, he hung also a very heavy plumber's iron upon the end of the steel-yard : the consequence prov'd fatal, for after some time the steam, not being able with the safety-clack to raise up the steel-yard loaded with all this unu- sual weight, burst the boiler with a great explosion, and kill'd the poor man." Exp. Philos. ii, 489. In a double engine by Leopold, A. D. 1720, the receivers were placed below the water they were to raise : hence the principle of condensation was not required — for as soon as the steam expelled the contents of a re- ceiver, a communication was opened between the upper part of the latter and the atmosphere, so as to allow the steam to escape and afresh supply of water to enter below. He produced a rotary movement by discharging the water into the buckets of a water-wheel. When steam is admitted into a receiver, a portion is immediately con densed by the low temperature of the vessel and the cold water within ; so that not till a film or thin stratum of hot water is thus formed on the surface, can the full force of the vapor be exerted in expelling the contents. This waste of steam is not however so great as might be imagined, because the water with which it comes in contact still remains on the surface, having become lighter than the mass below by the accession of heat, and consequently preventing the heat from descending : yet various attempts were made to interpose some non-conducting substance between the steam and the water. Papin, as we have seen, used a floating piston. In 1766, Mr. Blakey, an enterprising English mechanic, took out a patent for the application of a stratum of oil or air. To use these he made some corres- ponding alterations in the receiver ; but the advantages were not so great as had been expected. Blakey also introduced a new boiler, consisting of tubes or cylinders completely filled with water and imbedded in the fire. It caused considerable excitement among scientific men, but the danger arising from them, and the explosion of one or more, caused them to be laid aside. He spent several years in France, where he erected some of his engines. He wrote on several subjects connected with the arts. There is a copious and interesting extract from his Dissertation on the Invention and Progress of Fire Machinery, in the Gentlemen's Maga- zine for 1792, page 502. Other modifications of Savery's engine were made previous to and about Blakey's time, of which no particular accounts are now extant. In his Comparisons of French and English Arts, (article Horology) Blakey says, " About 1748 another Swiss, named Rivatz, appeared in Paris : he understood all the known principles and methods for regulating time in equal parts, to which he added others of his invention. And I Chap. 8.] Gensanne — De Moura — Amcmtons1 Fire Mill. 463 can say without pretending to prejudice any one's merit, that I never met with any French or English man who had so much ingenuity and knowledge in mechanical, hydraulic, fire machinery principles, &c. as Ri vatz." (Gent. Mag. 1702, page 404.) In 1734 M. Gensanne, a French gentleman, made some improvements on Savery's engine, and by additional mechanism rendered it self-acting. The alternate descent of two vessels of water opened and closed the cocks, on much the same principle as that exhibited in Fludd's pressure engine, page 354. (Machines Approuvees, tome vii, 222.) In 1740 M. De Moura, a Portuguese, accomplished the same thing by the ascent and descent of a copper ball or float within the receiver; but the device was too complicated for practical purposes. It is figured and described by Smeaton in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. xlvii, 437, in the Supple- ment to Harris's Dictionary of the Arts, and in other English works. In 1766, Cambray de Rigny, an Italian, made some additions to Savery's engine so as to make it in a great measure independent of manual assistance. Professor Francois, of Lausanne, having been consulted respecting the draining of an extensive marsh between the lakes Neuchatel, Bienne and Morat, adopted a fire engine on Savery's plan, and which he made self- acting by a more simple device than either of the preceding. A descrip- tion and good figure of his machine may be seen in the fourth volume of the Repertory of Arts, (1794) page 203. Nuncarrow's improvement on Savery's is described in the American Phil. Transactions, vol. i, 209, in Tilloch's Phil. Mag. vol. ix, 300, and in Galloway's History of the Steam- Engine. An English patent was issued in 1805 to James Boaz, and an- other in 1819 to Mr. Pontifex, both for improvements on Savery's engine. For further information see the Repertory of Arts, Nicholson's Journal, vol. i, 419, and the Journal of the Franklin Institute. " A commodious way of substituting the action of fire instead of the force of men and horses to move machines," was proposed in 1699, by M. Amontons, one of the earliest and most useful members of the French Academy of Sciences. He named his machine afire mill. It resembled a large wheel, supported on a horizontal axis, but was composed of two concentric hollow rings, each of which was divided by partitions into a dozen separate cells. The small or interior ring was at a considerable distance from the axis, and the cells communicated with each other through openings made in the partitions and covered by valves or clacks. The cells of the exterior rings had no communication with each other, but a pipe from each connected them with the inner ones. The outer cells contained air, and about one half of the inner ones contained water. The object was to keep this water always on one side, that its weight might act tangentially, and so cause the wheel to revolve, and the machine con- nected to it. A furnace was built close to a portion of the periphery, and the lower part of the wheel was immersed in water, to a depth equal to that of the exterior cells. When the fire was kindled, the air in the cell against which the flame impinged became rarefied, and, by means of a pipe communicating with an inner cell below the axle, forced the water contained in that cell into an upper one. This caused that side of the wheel to preponderate, which brought another air cell in contact with the fire, and the fluid becoming expanded by the heat forced up the contents of another of the inner cells into a higher one, as before : in this way every part of the periphery of the wheel was brought in succession in contact with the fire, and the water in the inner cells kept constantly rising on one side of the wheel, thus causing the latter to revolve. The air in the 464 Newcomen and Cawley. [Book IV. outer cells was cooled as they passed through the water in which the lower part of the wheel dipped. This device of Amontons is rather an air than a steam machine. It hardly belongs to this part of our subject; but as it may be considered the type of most of the steam wheels subsequently brought forward, we have been induced to notice it here. As a theoretical device, it is highly meritorious, but as a practical one, of little value. There is in Martyn and Chambers's abridged History of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, Lond. 1742, a full account of this wheel, and of the experiments from which it was deduced. (See vol. i, 69.) It was simplified by Leopold. Towards the close of the 17th century there lived in Dartmouth, a small seaporrtown on the English channel, two mechanics who combined their energies to devise a machine for raising water by means of steam. Their names were Thomas Newcomen and John Cawley; the first a blacksmith, bat sometimes called an ironmonger, the latter a plumber and glazier. The circumstances that led them to the subject have not been recorded, nor have the particular contributions of each been specified. Their efforts were however eminently successful, for to them belongs the honor of having permanently established the employment of steam as a mechanical agent. The date of the commencement of their efforts is unknown, but from the observation of a contemporary writer it seems to have been as early as the first attempts of Savery. The principal objection of miners to Savery's machine, viz. the enor- mous force of the steam required, and the consequent frequent explosion of the boilers, &c. was completely avoided by Newcomen and Cawley ; for they used steam of little or no greater force than cooks do in common cauldrons — hence it could never explode a boiler or endanger human life. Savery's engine had other disadvantages. It was required to be placed witliiii a mine or pit, and in no case farther from the bottom than 25 or 30 feet ; whereas Newcomen and Cawley 's was erected on the surface, near the mouth of the shaft. Moreover, in those mines which were previ- ously drained by pumps, it could be used to work these as before, without any additional cost for new pipes and pumps; the engine in such cases merely superseding the horses and their attendants. Instead of applying steam like Savery directly to the water to be raised, these mechanics made use of it to give motion to a piston and vibrating beam, and through these to common pump rods ; hence the device may be considered rather for im- parting motion to machines proper for raising water, than as one of the latter. It is in evidence that Newcomen had some correspondence respecting his machine with Dr. Hooke, and that he was acquainted with what Papin had previously done. This however might very well consist with the idea of giving motion to a piston originating with himself or partner ; yet as their labors were subsequent to those of the French philosopher, their claims to it, if they ever made any, could not be sustained. Their machine in its essential features is a copy of Guerricke's, and the mode of producing a vacuum under the piston ^imilar to Papin's ; but as Papin did not suc- ceed, the reintroduction of a device similar to his, and its successful appli- cation to the important purpose of draining mines, belong wholly to them; and the merit of doing this was certainly much greater than can ever be claimed for the abortion of Papin. Fulton did not invent steam boats, but he was the first to demonstrate their utility and to introduce them into use here after they had been tried and abandoned in Europe. It should not be supposed that the piston engine would not have been realized at the close of the 17th or beginning of the 18th century, if Papin Chap. 8.] Their first Engine. 465 and Newcomen had not lived. The spirit of inquiry that was abroad in their days, and the number of ingenious men engaged in devising means to employ steam as a motive agent, would assuredly have soon brought it into use. Indeed, every improvement in the application of steam seems to have been always perceived by some contemporary projectors, among whom the contest of maturing it was, as in a race, one of speed. " Watt [observes Prof. Renwick] found a competitor in Gainsborough, and but a few weeks would have placed Stevens on the very eminence where Fulton now stands." The circumstances of the times, the increase of English manufactures, and the general want of some substitute for animal labor, were all then favorable to the introduction of the steam-engine. " Had the mines of Cornwall been still wrought near the surface, Savery or New- comen would hardly have found a vent for their engines. Had not the manufacturers of England been wanting in labor-saving machinery, the double-acting engine of Watt would have been suited to no useful appli- cation. A very few years earlier than the voyage of Fulton [to Albany] the Hudson could not have furnished trade or travel to support a steam boat, and the Mississippi was in possession of dispersed hordes of savages." No. 196. Newcomen and Cawley's Engine. A. D. 1705. The above figure will sufficiently explain the principles and operation of Newcomen and Cawley's first engine ; and, when compared with those 59 466 Condensation by Injection discovered by chance. [Book IV already noticed, will enable the reader to do justice to all concerned. It will be perceived that although steam is an essential agent, it is not the primum mobile of the apparatus : the pressure of the atmosphere is the first mover, and to excite this only was steam employed. A, in the figure, (No. 196) represents a vibrating beam with arched ends or sectors, from one of which the main pump rod is suspended by a chain. This rod descends into the mine or pit, and is connected to as many other rods as there are pumps to be worked. A counterpoise or heavy weight m is fixed to the rod, so as to depress it and raise the other end of the beam in the position represented. «, the steam cylinder, open at top, its sides being surrounded by another, and the space between them containing water, r. the piston rod and piston, attached to the beam by a chain, b, the boiler, c, gauge cock. N, safety valve with weights placed directly upon it. d, a cock to admit steam into the cylinder, e, a pipe and cock to convey the water round a, into the well or tank o. f, a pipe and cock to supply cold water to condense steam in the cylinder, h, another pipe and cock to furnish occasionally a little water to the upper side of the piston, to prevent air from passing between the packing and sides of t$e cylinder : this water was kept at the depth of about two inches. t t, a pipe proceeding from one of the pumps in the pit to supply the small cistern with water, p, a pipe to convey the steam condensed within a into the tank o. w the ash pit. x x, flues round the boiler. Fire being applied to the boiler and steam generated, the cock d is opened and the cylinder filled with steam, provision being made for the escape of the air previously within, d is then closed and f opened, by which cold water from the cistern is admitted to flow round a : this con- denses the vapor within, and a vacuum being thus formed under the piston, the latter is pushed down by the atmosphere ; consequently the opposite end of the beam is raised, and with it the pump rods and the load of water with which they are burthened. f is now closed and d again opened, when the counterpoise m preponderates, the piston is raised, the cylinder again filled with steam, and the operation repeated. But previous to the admission of vapor the second time into the cylinder, the cocky is closed and the one on pipe e opened, to allow the water between the cylinders to escape into .the tank o, this water having become heated by its contact with a. As soon as the cylinder is charged anew with steam, a fresh supply of cold water to condense it is admitted by again opening f. The amount of force thus excited depends upon the diameter of the cylinder its ^d en- tenng the other, and the water rose IS inches. Previous to this trial D No. 211. No. 212. No. 213. Chap. 2.] When applied to Blouring Tubes. 487 had become slightly bruised in the middle of its length by a fall : the bruises were taken out, and the water rose 24 inches. Various portions were cut from the large end of D, but no diminution of the rise occurred while 3^ inches remained, and this length from several trials gave better results than when the tube was made shorter. In No. 213, the discharging end of the blowing tube was 1J inches long. Without any additional tube, the water rose 16 inches. The end was swelled out, and the liquid rose 19 inches. D was applied, and it rose 29 inches. C was then tried, which made the liquid ascend 31 inches. The discharging end was reduced in length from an inch and a half to half an inch, and the elevation of the liquid was diminished, both with and without the additional tubes C and D. Two other tubes connected like No. 213 were also tried. From slight variations in the dimensions of the passage way over the end of the ex- hausting tube, the results varied. Without the additional tube C, one raised the water only seven inches, while with C the rise was 17 inches. The other alone raised the liquid 14 inches, and with C 20J inches. It has been seen from preceding experiments, that when two tubes of the same bore are united, as in Nos. 203, 204 and 211, part of the current from the mouth will descend the vertical one, if but half an inch or even less of the discharging end project beyond the joint. To ascertain at what distance from the joint this descent of the current could be counteracted by additional tubes, we connected two pieces of leaden pipe (A and B) five-sixteenths of an inch bore to each other, as in the figure. A was 15 ^ inches long; B four inches, ~__ - "" and joined to the other three inches from the blowing end, thus leaving 12 inches in front of the joint. The No 21